2017, that happened

My last blog post that did not feature a book was in July. That’s quite a few months of happenings with no writing. In fact, after doing a quick scroll through of my 2017 blog I now realize I’ve only posted 7 times outside of my book of the month posts. Seven:

1. one year old
2. finally 2017 (a look ahead)
3. ry-guy
4. mediwift
5. t-man
6. 15 days: my iphone withdrawal story
7. four(teen)th of july

Either there’s not a whole lot going on for me, or a whole helluva lot. To be honest, definitely some of both. So, yeah, that happened. I do want to continue my recent tradition of reverse bucket listing my year. This year’s list will serve two purposes: it’s a great way to reflect on the good times of 2017, and is also a list of blog posts soon to be featured here:

1. Hosted wintry guests
2. Went on a cruise
3. Celebrated weddings in Newport, RI and Sundance, UT
4. Traveled to the western USA with my family
5. Saw the Grand Canyon
6. Went to Vegas
7. Followed my savings plan
8. Coached a growing group of girls
9. Attended my 10 year high school reunion
10. Completed another year of my ECE degree

I’ll stop at 10, because that’s been my modus operandi the previous two years, but there may be an extra post or two coming down the pipeline with happenings from the eventful 2017 – like my epic summer vacation. Get ready, 2018 is here.

four(teen)th of july

I love the Fourth of July. I’m willing to say it’s my favorite holiday. As an expat that makes for a hard time. This year we celebrated in Sweden. That is sans four day weekend. I mean I’m off, but the rest of the country isn’t. (Petition to the King still pending). 

We made a great day of it. Grilling, American flag decorations galore, and lots of red white and blue clothing. I hope our little one will enjoy the Fourth of July as much as I do. As often as we can, I hope we celebrate it in the States. It does make all the difference.

Here’s hoping your Fourth was full of fantastic fireworks, good company and tasty food. 

it’s christmas time

Merry Christmas to you and yours! Here in Sweden we had our celebration yesterday. Good food was eaten, toys were opened, and the merriness was abundant. 

Here’s hoping your day is full of love, peace, happiness and joy.

thanksgiving, y’all!

Here in Sweden Thanksgiving is not a national holiday. Which means I was in class. Despite the numerous e-mails arguing to the contrary, my professors saw it imperative to hold our seminars as scheduled. Though they failed to provide me with a better explanation for it than “this is Sweden”.

A what I’m getting to is the fact that we had Thanksgiving dinner last night. It was a gleeful event, where family and friends joined us at our place for food and fun. Everyone said they enjoyed the American style food, so we’re just going to have to take them on their word.

Not pictured: green bean casserole á la familjen Johnsson, cranberry sauce & sweet potato casserole.

 We fit 14 people around our table(s), which is just about maximum capacity. 

This photo is the first time I’ve considered getting/seen the need for a selfie stick. That being to avoid weird corner faces. Now I know.

Hope y’all had a great Thanksgiving, whenever it was celebrated. There’s so much to be thankful for.

moving day!

What fun one can have! Packing up all one’s belongings and lifting them from one place to another!

Though our mail will be forwarded, if you want to make a surprise visit to Sweden you’re just going to have to ask for our new address. Even though the older man who is moving into our old apartment seems very nice, he’s probably not as fun as us. Probably…

Things I learned from moving six months ago:

• We have a lot of stuff
• Babies are not a huge help in the moving process, baby K didn’t seem too interested in carrying anything
• Large trucks are a huge help in the moving process
• Our new place is slightly larger than the old. Which means we can buy more stuff! Evelina says we don’t need more stuff…
• It takes exactly six months to unpack every one of your boxes. When I say your boxes, I mean my boxes…and only mine. Evelina was finished unpacking after two days.

As you can see from my last bullet point up there, I’m not the one to offer any moving advice, so I won’t. You’ll just have to ask someone else.

gender reveal party

Now, my avid blog readers will already know the ending of this story, but I’m gong to tell it anyway. The journey is the destination, man.

I don’t know if you’ve explored the baby side of social media recently, but according to that, gender reveal parties are all the rage. From the get go it sounded  to me like an awesome opportunity to eat cool colored cake, so I was in.

Gender reveal parties can be done one of two ways. Either a special someone is designated to find out the gender of the coming baby, keep that a secret from the couple and all other humans, and help make the appropriate color schemed surprise. Or the couple finds out the gender of the baby and no one else knows until the big reveal during the party. Evelina and I went with the latter option.

After deciding that we needed to figure out how to do the big reveal. Pop a balloon filled with blue or pink confetti, open a present/box whose contents reveal the gender, be sprayed by our loved ones with the correct color of paint…the list is almost endless. We went with the tried and true method of cutting into a cake, and letting the cake do the talking.

Now, for games and entertainment. A prerequisite of attendance was a specific dress code, everyone had to wear pink or blue, depending on which gender they thought the baby would be. When our guests arrived they were conveniently divided into two teams as determined by their clothing choice. Before dinner was served our guests could guess the baby’s name, by writing it on the appropriate colored paper. We also played a quiz game where Evelina and I had written questions about common superstitions about pregnancy symptoms that can reveal the baby’s gender. Each team answered the questions, and the winning team won the honor of being victorious.

After dinner it was time for dessert, or as we say in Sweden, fika! Since Evelina and I knew the gender of our little one, we were the ones to order the cake to match, covered in white with the words “It’s a…” glazed on top. That evening our guests gathered round in suspense as we cut into the cake, finally revealing that we were expecting a little girl!

.

independence day

It’s here! The Fourth of July!

I love this holiday. Though for some reason I can’t fathom we don’t have the day off here in Sweden. I’ve written a letter to the local politician regarding the matter. I’m sure the positive response I’m waiting for is in the mail. While we wait let’s take a look back to last year’s celebratory activities.

I hope your 4th is full of family, friends, food and fun!

welcome to the world

Hello,

Welcome to the world my baby. Allow me to introduce myself, I’m your Mommy. We live in Sweden where your Mama grew up. We are very lucky to have you. Some of your family lives here in Sweden with us, and some of your family lives in the US. Everybody is looking forward to your first flight across the ocean. Most of all Mama.

You came into our lives earlier than we expected little one, and we are happy and relieved that you’re doing so well. Luckily, in Sweden both of your mommies can be with you full time these first few important weeks of your life. We have had a wonderful experience at the hospital, where we’ve lived all together as a family for a week now. Everyone says how cute you are. Me and your Mama most of all.

During this first week you have already grown a lot. Gaining weight and getting longer. My does time fly. Images of you going off to college already plague my imagination. Mama says there’s a lot of time between then and now, I have yet to be convinced. I wish we could be together always.

You’ll learn about the world soon enough so I won’t spoil the surprise now, but I want you to know that me and your Mama are over the moon to have you here with us. We are so grateful. Please take your time growing up.

Love,

four blogging years

Can you believe this?! Four years ago in January I started this little corner of the internet, and my have we come a long way.

I’ve posted 285 times. This post you’re reading now is the two hundred and eighty fifth time I have composed word followed by word to send out into the interwebs.

I have uploaded 796 pictures/collages and y’all have viewed my little blog 11,794 times.

Sunday at 9:00pm is my most popular day and time. I should probably start posting every Sunday, eh?

My top three visited posts/pages (aside from the home page) are:

1. 25 before 25, published March 21st, 2012
2. 5 years, published November 1st, 2013
3. Book of December: James Potter, published December 31st, 2012

The top five countries who view my blog the most are:

1. USA 
2. Sweden 
3. France 
4. Germany 
5. Canada 

I want to say: Thank you! Tack så mycket! Merci! Dankeshön! And once again thank you! Without you my lovely readers this blog would be nothing.

 

 

france

Only you have to say it in French…”Fraaance”. Also feel free to be a little snooty about it, but that’s optional.

Balcony views

In October Evelina and I travelled to Paris. My cousin has been living there for about a year with her husband and daughter and now their new-born son. Though his arrival was after our visit. Evelina and  had a great time visiting with them and catching up. The last time I had seen my cousins daughter she was only three months old, so it was quite different to get to play with her as an almost three-year old in the parks of Paris and bounce up and down on a seesaw beside the Notre Dame.

Notre Dame

Evelina and I loved Paris. As they say the city is for lovers.

Eiffel Tower in the sunshine

After we got home I took the opportunity to work on number 15 on my 30 before 30 list. I made a map matte.

Here’s the example picture I found on Pintrest:

And here’s my crack at it:

I just loved the idea of using a map as a matte! I got in almost everything in the matte that we did/went to. We stayed by the Eifel Tower, visited the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, as well as strolled along the Seine eating baguettes in the sunshine.

Paris is for lovers