Of course there were at least three bithdays to celebrate, Rons, my mums and my own. That in itself is not so special. It's what happens at or around those birthdays.......
Take Ron's birthday. I wanted to give him a present, but man is that hard if the man himself can not give you any clues to what you can get him. Then I finally found something he could use. But he forbids me to buy them. Only on the day itself I actually got permission to order him the special shoes he wanted so much.
A few days later, they arrived, in the absolute wrong size....way too big and not what we ordered. So, a lot of back and forth emailing, but we need not worry, they will send the right size without extra costs. Unfortunatly they were not in store, but as soon as they are, we will get them........... and we are still waiting.........hopefully they'll arrive before the next winter.
On my mums birthday it was Elsa turn to go to the dentist again, to get a tooth fixed. Very exciting that must have been, first time anesthesia, drilling and filling. But a brave girl she was, right after all of this she wanted to go back to school. I was off to the office to have a meeting, so Ron picked the kids up at school and went to my parents. Right after the meeting he was going to pick me up. So a little surprised I was when my phone rang. Ron asked if I had someone that could give me a lift to my parents for he was unable to pick me up, He drove into a ditch with the kids in the back.......... due to the slippery nature of the "road". Luckily it was close to my parents house and the kids went on by foot, while my dad came to the rescue and they had to dig the car free. Instead of into the ditch, the car had slid with the underside onto the icy ridge that formed after the snow was pushed to the side. After this, a nice piece of pie and a good cup of coffee were very welcome. Unfortunately, all this was a little too much excitement for our little girl, so she got nightmares the night after and was sick the next morning......
Up next, my birthday. And this is related to my chirstmaspresent. Dear Santa Ron bought the cd I wanted to have for a while, and in my happiness and enthousiasm I said that of course I had to get the rest of this bands albums as well. ( For those who don't know what or who I'm talking about, it's Sabaton). In the days running up to my birthday, all my kids had to give 50 Sek to daddy, and I just couldn't help wondering........WHY???
Now Santa was a little careless when he explained how my christmaspresent arrived at our house, in a thick but plain brown envelop. When I noticed one of those envelops under the newspaper I got an idea as where those 50 kronors per child had gone to.
Ron soon found out I knew and so I got my birthdaypresent a little earlier, 2 more CD's, one from the kids together and one from Ron.
And as a newyears resolution I made a promise to myself, to think a bit more of me and a little less about all the others (just a tiny little bit though) , plus I had a little profit from the christmas fairs, so I decided to buy the other 3 albums as a birthdaygift to myself. Now I am complete, musically speaking that is.
Poor Ron did not know what he started when he bought the first CD. Now he is forced to listen to it, from all corners off the house, and never the same song at the same time. And 4 housemates singing along as well, one better than the other. Luckily he doesn't think it's too bad either.
Between all these festivities Ron found some spare time and on a morning spotted a wonderfull sighting just outsight our livingroom window. Eager to get out he jumped out of his pyjamas into his clothes, grabbed some stuff to eat and drink and went on a reconaissance trip of our new surroundings. Enjoying every minute of his little outdoor adventures .Finding tracks of wolf, moose, hare, deer and other animals, listening to birds whistling in the trees right above his head.
But only to find out at lunchtime that he, in his hurry to get out, had forgotten half of the basic lunch ingredients, something like coffee, not completely unimportant .......
Here are a few appitizers.........
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| The first sight in the morning |
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| Wolftrack |
If you want to see or read more, feel free to read it in his blog The Trying Woodsman.
On the Jobbfront we were about to get a great shock........ again.
First there was of course the fact that Ron was practically without a "real" jobb from the beginning of january. That has, on the other hand, one advantage (always look on the bright side). There's always someone home to do household chores ( and I must say he is doing a very good job there) and to heat up the house, so that is nice and warm when the kids get home from school or I from work.
But that was not all that was to change................ Of course not, it's never a smooth sail with us.......
On january 23 at 14.00 I attended the Big Yearmeeting at work, it was moved a week so that all co-workers could attend, already giving it a sense of importance.
The atmosphere was tense, when our boss started talking. She started with explaining that they had thought and talked about the growth of the company and that it had developed in too many different directions. Both she and the other owners had to admit that their heart lies with the food part of company and thats what they wanted to put their energy in. She told us that our part(the cleaning) of the company would, after long negotiations, be taken over by HomeMaid in Falun.................
Silence,.................. you could hear a needle drop so to speak
After the shock sank in a little we got a bit more information on the why, where, when and how and then we got to meet some of the chefs from the new company. Not that we were able to have a decent conversation with them, the shock was too big I guess and maybe the anger as well, certainly for a few of my coworkers. Understandable If you know that we had only two weeks to get used to the idea and only 5 days to think whether we wanted to follow along into the new company or not. We were going to have a meeting at the new office in Falun on the monday after, where we could ask all the questions we wanted (and we sure did have an aweful lot of 'em), and at 18.00 that same day we had to give our answer. A tat bit short I say.
But me being quite used to change and adaption, I soon saw challenges, possibilities and opportunities. I'll go in with an open mind, see what the future has in store for me this time.
I tried to get those thoughts across to my coworkers, but not all of them are able to see it like that, and maybe that is just for the better. We do not all have to be the same or think alike.
I think our bosses made a wise decision, and I wish them all the best of luck with what they have left of the company.
At least we still still have a job, that's more than the employers of another company in our little village Vika bröd, they got the message that they will be without a job from the summer on the same day we got to hear we going to be taken over!
Elsa our little brave girl had to go to the dentist several times this month to get some tooths fixed. Thanks to the lovely Dutch healthcare, where they are very generous and fast with subscribing antibiotics, all of our children have problems with their teeth. Because these docters who subscribe these antibiotics, "forget" to tell you as a newbe parent that it is full of just about everything that's absolutely devastating for their young teeth, and that you might need to brush those right after intake of the antibiotics. And of course there's also no list of ingredients on the bottle itself. But enough on the dutch healthcare, let's talk about the Swedish Dental care......
I must say I am impressed with the way the take care of our litlle ones, starting with just getting acquainted with eachother, and....... the chair! After that the rest of the equipment is shown, explained and in some cases tried out on other bodyparts like hands, just to get the feeling of what it might feel like. And the anesthesia is done in a whole different maner than I was used to. They don't even give an injection in the gumm here. just a few drops of a solution is sort of rubbed on the gum and that does the trick. It even makes me feel like it's safe to go the dentist, me being the kind that has about 7 colours of sh*t in her underpants whenever she needs to go.
So in the end little Elsa didn't think it was half bad going to the dentist, she thinks it's cool. You get to lay in that comfy chair, your teeth get fixed while you don't even feel a thing, and you get lot's of presents if you do good!! Guess how many presents she's got, knowing that at the dentist they think she is the bravest one of all??
That our kids are already more adapted to this country we live in than we are, became obvious when they ended op in a ditch with the whole schoolbus. As soon as I heard of it from Sven, I was on high alert, called Ron at home, he was already informed. I tried to get in touch with the kids a few times, didn't work. Not good for my Mammie heart, that is.
All in all our kids spend about 3,5 hours in a schoolbus in a ditch, of wich the doors did not seem to open.......and they had the time of their lives.
While we parents were kind of freaking out a bit............we have a lot to learn I suppose...
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| already half way out the ditch and the kids gone...... |
Other transport problems there were to solve a well. We knew that the little red Volkswagen Golf we were driving around in was due up for it's yearly examination. We also knew that it was definitly not going to pass and thus not allowed on the road. So we have been searching for an affordable car that runs. Off course the budget was very low, but nonetheless we found one on blocket.se. Only 5000Sek and still being used on a daily basis. So off we went to somewhere in the Horndal area. Off course it is not a new car, and you can not expect too much for that price, but after a little drive we decided to buy the car. All paperwork was taken care of in a couple of minutes and we were the proud owners of a Mitsubishi Carisma. I got in the "new"car and followed Ron in de little red Golf. Right outside the little village we had to test the brakes propperly for a deer decided it was fun to just step onto the road from under a bridge right in front of us. Brakes functioned as they should.
So we drove on. After a little while, it was already dusk, Ron hits the brakes again. This time already in advance. By the side of the road stood a big animal. As we passed it we could clearly see it was a moose. We stopped at about 10 till 15 meters from the animal, got out of the car and looked at it for a while. Moose looked back at us as well and seemed quit comfortable doing so. It might have been just a few minutes we stood there and watched eachother, then a car came from the other side and off went the moose. Finally I had seen a Moose up close and rather personal.
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| Not the actual Moose, but much the same. |
These lovely creatures of the forest have become very special to us. we feel like they are some sort of blessing to us. Every time a big event in our life happens there is a moosesighting that goes along with it. Our move from the Netherlands to Sweden, a moose. Our move to our own house, a moose and now with all these major changes like new employer and stuff, again a moose. We are counting our blessings.
We went on, finding at least one thing at the new car that needed fixing, for the screen wipers in the front have a life of their own, starting whenever they wanted to, and me not being able to stop them doing so. Then a last stop in Hedemora at the postoffice. There I could finally, after 4 months of waiting, pick up my Swedish driverslicence. I had send in an request form to exchange my Dutch driverslicence for a Swedish one on september 21st 2012. They took 3 months to think whether they were going to grant me permission to do so, costing 600Sek. So finally at the end of 2012 I got the permission, needed to send in a mugshot and another 150 Sek for the little card itself and one month later there I was picking it up. All this time driving around with a copy of my original Dutch one. The original of course had to be handed over with the original request. I really had no idea if a Swedish police officer was going to buy my story if ever I got pulled over........
So now we could bring the little red Golf back to my dad. In spite of the fact that is not the kind of car I would have choosen myself and that the car had a few discomforts, the little red devil had never let us down, always got were we needed to be. So I'm gratefull for the services it performed , and very thankful to my dad that we were allowed to borrow the car for such a long time.
The next event was our Little Camping adventure. We being lovers of the outdoors, but not having the eqipment to go out and camp in the winter, had this briljant idea of a little camping in the living room. The kids called it Powerless Night, as we decided there was not going to be any electricity, no tv, no radio, no computer or game console and no light just candlelight. Only the fridge was allowed to cheat, for we did not want to shut down power completely. All this meant that we were going to cook dinner in the fireplace, daddy,s special Pytt-i-panna, and of course grill sausages and marshmallows. The kids were going to sleep on fieldcots (veldbed, fältsäng) while Ron and I had the couch. And what an adventure it was. We had lots of fun and learned a lot at the same time. The full story you can read here, but here's a nice impression
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| Daddy's special! Mummmms |
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| What do you do when you have nothing else to do....... you read |
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| Ron trying to sew by candlelight |
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| Off to the land of dreams |
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| the morning after........ |
Annalena started with the choir again when springterm began, and after only one real practise she was going to sing in church. she dressed herself up in a skirt, did her own hair and ready she was. A tat bit nervous as well. At the church they had a little time to practise, but unfortunately only 4 girls showed up, including Annalena. But she did an amazing job, while proud mum was sitting in the church watching and listening.
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| It's like looking in the mirror |
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| Practice |
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| The Real Thing. |
Sabaton, great band :-).
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