Thoughts

2 little people in my life are going through a really tough time right now.

Jayden, who is 4, is going through her 2nd battle with cancer. She has a Wilm's Tumor which is located outside the kidneys, which is extremely rare. She is fighting and fighthing very hard, but she needs as many postive thoughts and positive energy as she can get. I'm thinking a lot about her, her family and my own family lately. As a matter of fact, it's consuming my life, as it is many other people who are close to me. So Baby Jay, I'm thinking about you! Keep fighting!


Jayden and her 18 month old sister, Trinity.

The other little guy is my 3 year old cousin, Sebastian. He was diagnosed with Mononucleosis. Which many people are very familiar with, but when it hits a 3 year old, it's very serious. So he also needs some thoughts and positive energy going his way as well. He's a tough guy with a HUGE support system of mom, dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Hopefully he will bounce right back to his same energized self! Thinking about you too, Seb!

Quite a sombering post, I know. But these little people are important to me, espeically children this age. It seems quite unreal and un fair.

On a much lighter note, it has been snowing here ALL DAY LONG! So we are adding a few inches to our already couple inches of ice and snow. Super. Just gotta get through it. Thank goodness I have Fredrik. He is doing his very best to keep me positive through a rough time in my life. I couldn't be any luckier to have such a supportive partner for the rest of my life.

So, here is your everyday thing.

Now this is just silly. This is what Swedish people think American's put on their hamburgers. See the weird looking pink stuff slithering down the hamburger? Yea, that's the "American Dressing" we supposidly put on our hamburgers. I don't know about you, but how many times have you put pink sauce from a pink tube on your hamburger? Never. Me too. It's kind of cute though, and they really like it. I tried it once and it tastes a lot like Long Island dressing. Which is something I would never put on a burger. But none the less, Swedes like burgers, and it's kind of a pride thing, when we really get to be the ones to take claim for creating the hamburger!

Now the Swedish word for the day will not be hamburger, because it basically looks the same, but is nearly impossible to say. So I am going to stick wtih "sauce" which is "sås" and pronounced "soahs". More or less. :)

Norge

Saturday morning we woke up pretty early and Fredrik joked, "we could go to Norway today." But he sort of looked at me in that way that you know your significant other is actually saying "let's go to Norway today." So I looked back and thought...is he serious? I said, "do you want to?" So we agreed and got busy showering, making coffee and planning to get money exchanged and grab my passport. What a great decision! We went to a border town of Halden and saw a huge fort from the...eh...1600s? The museum wasn't open, on a Saturday...guh...really, this town was pretty dead. But it was a blast to walk around and read the funny signs and hear the funny Norweigian people talk. I loved the spontaneity of the trip. Fredrik is such a wonderful man to do something like that for me. He knew I was itching for an adventure with him. We started our tradition, as my mom and Marshall do, buying a key chain every place they visit together. I love this, it's a great way to remember. We couldn't find a sourvenir shop! Ugh! But we found a place that sold some keychains and bought a big letter "N"...for Norway. It took us about 2 and a half hours to drive there, and the same back. Fredrik found I'm not so great to road trip with, especially around 11-1 because I have to pee, A LOT due to large coffee consumption. oops.

I cannot wait to share many more spectacular views with this man. He really is the man of my dreams and I'm so lucky to experience the world with him.As you can see we are kind of far up! :)Such a beautiful time to be up there...I love the pink sky and the mountains!

And here is your normal thing for the day. Some money, with a special edition...Norweigian money too! The top is "our" money which is "Kronor" and the Norwegian language is so close to Sweden they call it "Kroner". And if you are me and speak English you just call is a crown. Like 100 crowns. Haha, the easy way out! And I have no idea who the woman on the Norwegian money is, with some research I could find out, but I don't care so much. The guy on the Swedish money is Carl von Linne who was a Swedish botanist. The back image is a bee polinating a flower. Sooo cool! Their money is so much more colorful and I love the sparkly stuff on the edge! Random note, Norwegian coins have holes in the middle!

The Swedish word of the day is "pengar" which is "money" and is pronounced the way it looks...more of less. :)

a lot.

A lot of thinking has been going on in my head. Jayden, who is my niece Emma's 4 year old cousin, has cancer...again. She is undergonig more chemo than any person should ever have to endure, and especially any 4 year old should have to endure. I am sending as many positive thoughts their way as I can. And for anybody reading this, I'm sure you already know about her, but send one her way, also.

In other news (not that interesting) I have started a new pilates routine that takes me about 45 minutes everyday. I can't WAIT for the snow to melt so I can go running/walking again. The snow and ice, where I live, is just too scary for me to go out and do some cardio walking and running on. I'm a whimp, I know, but at least I got the pilates going on. I know it's so cliche to say you want to lose weight before your wedding, and I don't necessarily want to lose weight, I just want to feel really good about myself that day. I think excersing is a sure fire way to feel good about your body, even if you arent loosing tons of weight. So we will see! :)

Here's your everyday item.As you can see I took some of these pictures around Christmas time, so we have a little "tomte (santa/elf thing)" on the package. Mjuk means soft...because here in Sweden we have
"knäckebröd" which is very hard crisp bread. But honestly, I don't think they need to write the difference on the package, it's really obvious the difference, but...fairness is the name of the Swedish game. And, Swedish bread is a lot tasty than the bread we have. I'm going to miss it!

The Swedish word of the day is "bröd" which means "bread" and is pronounced "bruhd".

Oh yea

Also, I'm gonna make sure to answer questions. Since I have like...4 loyal readers, I better treat them good!

So starting with the last post, mom asked me when it will stop snowing here. Everybody keeps telling me..May. I don't know if they are just scaring me, or if they are serious. I have also heard that is when the snow will for sure be melted away. Ugh.

Sofia, we don't have a date here. Nor do we have plans. It's merely for legal purposes! :) Sorry!

This is ketchup! :) Felix is the most common brand, but I don't particularily like it. It's kind of thick and weird tasting. I usually buy Heinz for myself! :)
The Swedish word of the day is "flaska" which means "bottle".

Plans

Wow, planning planning is my life now. Since (even though its 5 months away) we are moving back to Kansas, we have to start the complicated process of moving ourselves over there! Firstly, we are getting married here in Sweden. Then determining if we should apply for Fredrik to be a permanate resident of the US here or in the US, then getting to the US, then planning an actual wedding! Whew! Busy. Then we have to think about setting up a new life in the US. House, car, phones, bills, jobs...2010 is the most adult year of my life! :)

Things here in Sweden are cold and snowy. I know it's been horribly cold in the US, but it has been here as well. It also snowed here many days in a row and hasn't disappeared. I'm so impressed with my snow/ice driving abilities, especially with a manual transmission. It certainly widens the car search up quite a bit, if I don't need to rely on 4 wheel drive and an automatic transmission. What a strong woman I am, eh? :)

Here's your normal thing of the day.

This is...duh...milk. It's pretty similar to the US, color distinction between the different percentages of milk. Here in Sweden though, they are incredibly lactose free friendly, which for me, is awesome. They have everything from milk to sour cream, whipping cream to cream cheese. I love it! The other thing with this milk is the date it expires, along with other products such as cheese and bread. Here, they use fresh products and A LOT less preservatives, which is so healthy, but things go back really fast! So the day this expires, throw it out! Once I bought Fredriks favorite bread and we didn't finish it all and I didn't think twice about just leaving it in the cupboard. But when we returned after the weekend, the 2 pieces left were COMPLETELY green. Fredrik was absolutely horrified I let that happen! It is pretty disgusting, but how many of us Americans leave a loaf of bread in the pantry for weeks and can still eat a slice?

The Swedish word of the day is "mjölk" which is "milk" and is pronounced "myuhlk".

With the New Year

...comes new things. To go along with my Swedish word of the day I thought some of you might like to see some normal everyday things, only Swedish style. I know a friend asked me to take some pictures of the grocery store for her and her husband, which I have not done...sorry! But this might be an ok substitute untill I get the courage to walk around a grocery store taking pictures, like a real tourist. So...enjoy.

Start simple, this is butter. There, as in the US, are many different brands. You might be wondering what the blue thing is that it sticking out on the side there. It's a Swedish butter knife. And well...since Swedes eat butter on just about everything at every single meal, they just want to have theirbutter knife handy, so they just keep it in the butter! Clever.The Swedish word of the day is "smör" which is "butter" and is pronounced "smuhr". Kind of an ugly word, if you ask me! ;)

A New Year Story

More food, good friends, some games, a lot of fireworks, lots of booze and a great New Year's kiss! Here's to 2010!

A Christmas Story

A story in pictures. The food they made, the food I made, gifts, Christmas trees, my new family, lights, laughs, snow, ice and my fiance! :)

This bridge

Last night Fredrik and I headed out for an hour and a half long walk to this bridge. Fredrik lives on a big hill in Sweden that looks over all of Gothenburg, so last night our short walk ended up being a walk to this bridge. We walked half way across so we could see the amazing view. It was really exciting to walk across such a huge bridge! I'd never done that before. I think we are going to make it our goal to walk to as many such places as we can. Good exercise and new experiences! That's what the New Year is about, right? :) Wonder where we will go today?

The Swedish word of the day is "bro" which is "bridge". No, it's not short for brother. :) This bridge is called the Älvsborgsbron.

Gott Nytt år!

Last night we celebrated New Years 7 hours ahead of all my friends and family! We spent it amongst really wonderful friends! Sofia and Anton hosted a dinner and party. New Years in Sweden is something I will never forget. It's Swedens version of the 4th of July! Fire works galore! It was really spectacular. At 11:45 we all wrapped up and got our warm clothes on and trecked outside. People started fire works and we counted down and opened champagne! It was truly magical. Kissing your honey, in a foreign country, under hundreds of fire works, in the cold, with snow and ice all around...doesn't get any more romantic! :)

The bus ride was also something I'll never forget. We met a lot of fun, crazy, drunk Swedes on our 1 hour bus ride home. Fredrik talked to some folks, some people figured out I was American, and that was pretty exciting. We talked to 4 gay guys about being engaged. It was actually really fun! And go Sweden, for having such great public transportation. It was comforting to know none of those people were attempting to get home by car.

I promise I will post pictures from my whole festive holiday! We have 1 weekend left, and by god, I'm going to enjoy it!

Welcome to 2010! :)

The Swedish word of the day is "romantisk" which is....yes..."romantic".