1. What is your favorite vegetable? Corn.

2. What is your favorite salad dressing, sauce, gravy, or condiment? I love french dressing on salad. I also like BBQ sauce, gravy and when I eat fish (especially beer battered fish) tartar sauce rocks :)

3. What is your favorite culture's food (American, Chinese, Creole, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Soul Food, Southern U.S., etc.)? Swedish, Italian and Asian.

4. What is your favorite beverage? Iced tea.

5. What is your favorite food? I enjoy traditional Swedish food... will miss it but we'll have to make it when we're living in the US ;)

26 days.

Majority of the days are spent with a 2½ y/o boy who lives a few doors down, named Viktor, who looks up to Alex and loves playing with him. They get along really well.... even if Viktor is in the "me me, mine mine, do as I say, I'm boss!" stage Alex used to be in at that age ;) hehehe And it's morning, afternoon and evening we go between our apartment or Viktor's haha! When Viktor wakes up from his afternoon nap, he says: "Viktor plays with Alex now." haha! So cute!

Took pictures of them and Ylva's cat "Happy", which is a 10 y/o Persian who's so cuddly and sweet and cool, it makes me want a cat right away! hehe Maybe someday.

Well, we have a lot packed away and the IKEA Ektorp couch is gone and our dvr player is gone (we have a cheap dvd player now that was Alex's) so things are looking emptier... lol... once Ta Till Vara comes here to take loads of stuff, well, it'll be even more emptier.

Can't believe in 2 wks time this place will be empty and we'll be in an efficiency apartment here at Ringen and doing a thorough moving cleaning of the place before finally moving to Buffalo.

Good nite.

Well as of today it's officially 30 days until we're in the USA. :)

Had a good day; lots of packing done by Magnus and Alex, and in the evening Alex played with his neighbor friend Viktor who's 2½ years old and we had coffee and fresh strawberries with Victor's parents, Ylva and Andreas. :) Spent a few hours there. Was so nice!

Well, I'm gonna get in pj's and relax... tomorrow evening my parish priest is coming to do a home Confession. I can't get to him without a car so he's making a special visit prior to us moving. :) So I'll get my workout done in the morning. We've had gorgeous cooler temps since the thunder storm 2 nights ago and I am singing my praises :))

I love him so much. What a dream dog. Looks, personality and unconditional love.......

Yes I am moving my family to Antarctica. Gauranteed to be cold all year around :-) Right up my alley!

So the home colour with light ash blonde worked! Praise the Lord. I cancelled the appt for the hairdresser and chanced it and Thank St Mary Magdalen for the help.... !!!

I took a nap earlier this afternoon, was nice. :) Made up for waking up early (can't get back to sleep when my body wants to get up) this morning.

Now, to have a little to eat, and then get to my afternoon workout. I just read that for weight loss, one should do 1 hour of exercise a day. I think today I will break it up to into two 2 mile walks with Leslie Sansone... because the 4 miler I did yesterday just 'bout done me in... even tho it felt great to do, I was sweatting A LOT and it is not good to exercise in 79*F temps, even if you are in front of a fan. :P

Magnus finally called (he left his cell in the cabin) and they have had a blast... Alex asked him if they were going to spend another day on the ship and Magnus told him no, the ship is on it's way back to Stockholm and will be back in the evening, and then the take a bus here and will be home by 8.30pm. Alex cried a bit because he really loves the ship... he's played in the pool, the pool with plastic balls in it, watched a puppet theatre, and more, so of course he doesn't want the trip to end. So cute... Magnus got some candy, a few bottles of wine, a toy for Alex and also a little watch for Alex, too. I'm glad they have had such a great mini-vacation!

TTYL!

Well, I slept well, and got up at 7.30. I never have been one to sleep in since I got pregnant back in 2004.

Had breakfast, and took the dog out and called (and visited) the salon here at Ringen and she said since I have such thick hair, and great quality, that I could do another blonde coloring (try Ash Blonde) and then do a hair "inpackning" (don't know the English word for it, but it's like putting a facial mask on hair but for hair...). She said one can never get it really light blonde, with at home products... and that she is full booked...to try somewhere else... if it's not too expensive I think I will book a time with a hairdresser, and they could do this for me as I don't want to mess around with my hair anymore.

Well, that's all for now!

(Update: 9.16 ............. Booked a time at Ateljé Liva for tomorrow, it can run from 695-995kr, and the appt is at 12.45... they are downtown so easy for me to go to. Would be cool if they could get me a nice shade of blonde... I do love being blonde... ;) It's so Scandinavian, lol!)

Well I dyed my hair today from dark brown to light blonde but newp, it went yellowy.... so I googled and found a site called nightmarehair.com and looked in the disaster section and found what I need to do to go back to brown (or auburn would be nice even). Will get new haircolour on Wednesday and re-dye it. As going blonde just ain't gonna happen for me. I have dark eyebrows (that need waxing/shaping)... and so tomorrow evening I'll walk to the store and get new haircolour and do it on Wednesday... I just didn't think I had THAT dark of a brown haircolour naturally. Maybe it darkened with age. :P

MIL thinks I can dye back to brown without problem... ugh.. I dunno!

Well, this morning Alex woke us up at 7.30 and said, "Good morning, today is when we go on a cruise!" (Magnus and him left around 9.30 to catch a bus to the train/bus station to take a bus down to Stockholm for their overnight cruise on Viking Line's M/S Cinderella. :) Lots of kids stuff to do on there and I am thrilled for them both to have a father/son time together somewhere other then home. :) Those cruises go in the archipeligo between Sweden and Finland. I was on one almost a year ago with a girlfriend of mine. I made sure they took sunblock because I didn't when I went last year and I burned badly! Looked like a lobster! Lots of after sun care lotion that week after!
LOL

I've been listening to Catholic radio online, and got the dishes prepared to wash, and am picking up toys and putting them in Alex's room and making it presentable here. For now, just relaxing in front of a fan with the laptop on the kitchen table. I went out with the dog earlier... It's so warm outside :(

Weird to be home alone LOL but nice, too! Just me and the dog :)

I had to laugh; yesterday I stopped and talked to a neighbor (she has a daughter who's around Alex's age), and mentioned we were moving to the States in 5 wks time... and then a bunch of her friends came, one was really drunk.... and he moved funny and Rain could tell he was drunk (smell/movement) so he growled a bit as he pet him (Bailey did this as well, he hated drunks) and then the guy tried to pick him up and Rain was not having it. He barked angrily at him and I pulled Rain out of the guy's arms and said "He really doesn't like when drunk people pick him up at all, watch out or he'll bite you. And it's really hot out for him, so please let go of the dog!" and they guy didn't want to listen so a friend of his came and told him to cut it out, so then he let go and I took Rain home. That guy was lucky as he could of gotten his nose nipped badly by Rain as Rain had his head right near his.... I mean even if I were drunk, if a dog was reacting like Rain, I'd let him be. Some people :P lol!

I can't believe in 5 weeks time we'll be in Buffalo. I just can't believe it! It's sinking in more and more as we get closer to the moving date. I mean... today is Magnus' last day of work then no more work until we're stateside... then he'll temporarily work at my Godfather's Tim Hortons / car wash (mini mart) in the interim until he lands a job in his field... And this is the last 6 months Alex is home full-time with me, since in January, he begins preschool for a few hours a day, at our parish's Catholic school, and I will homeschool him as well with the Catholic Heritage Curricula as well... I think Alex really will love school, he just loves being around kids of all ages as much as he loves being around "grown-ups". :) Wow, I love daydreaming about what life can be like back home with Mag and Alex and Rain... :) It's just... a dream come true, to be able to do this! And I did say to Mag, if after a few years, it doesn't seem to be working out like we thought it should, there is always Sweden again, but let's look at this moving as we'll be there for a while and try our best.

Aren't they just precious?

Well it sure is hot this week... baking in the sun each day... with SPF 25 I think we have, kids sunblock... The condo door is cracked open and our balcony is open all day, a nice cross-breeze.... relief!

I don't feel like eating many big hot meals, which is a good thing.... drinking a lot of water or sugar free juice.... oh which reminds me, coffee is still on...need to have a cuppa...

Don't feel like making potato au gratin this evening so maybe something quick and light for dinner? I dunno... A couple crispbread sammiches with coffee suit me fine for dinner... I munched a lot during lunch...

Anywho, nothing much goin' on... I got new aerobics sneakers yesterday as my Nikes were worn and jogging type and hurt when I exercised with Leslie, so I got myself some Asics for indoor exercise... Love them!

1 day left of work for Mag...........

Well, that's all....................

I registered to win a Flirty Apron, 50's style!

Go here http://flirtyapronswap.blogspot.com/ to also enter to win!

My favorite apron at Momomadeit is Summer Breeze!

I sure hope I win.... :o)

Well, yesterday Richard mentioned me in his Richard-gram;
"We are from different cities, states and countries! One webbie is from the US living in a different country, but moving back to the US! :-) "

Today I'm reading through his chat transcripts and see he mentions me again... we had homework to email him and list 5 people who have been kind to you... and one was my Mother...here is what he said...(the Monday chats are in the middle of the night for me so I never wake up for them...)

"RichardS THIS ONE SAID " MY MOM TAUGHT ME HOW TO BE A FAITHFUL WOMAN OF GOD. SHE WAS ALSO A GOOD COOK AND BAKER!"
RichardS NOW THAT IS MY KIND OF MOM.
RichardS O HOW I LOVED TO WATCH MY MOTHER COOK.
RichardS SHE ALWAYS HAD MUSIC ON.
RichardS AND SHE WOULD SING TO ME SOMETIMES WHILE SHE CHOPPED AND STIRRED."

He's such a sweetheart. Glad I opted to stay in his clubhouse even if I am also a part of Leslie's walk club as well. I try to get to forums, emails and facebook in the AM and PM to keep up... :)

...goes out to catdraco for the beautiful 1 decade finger rosary I received today in the mail :) Thanks so much!

...need to get Rain some more toothpaste! Will have to get him that before we're car-less tomorrow. Only got enough for today... (I brush 2 times a day just like we do for ourselves.)

Well I sit here having breakfast in silence, which is wonderful. :)

To-do today:
# Dishes
# Laundry
# Vaccuming, mopping
# Trim Rain
# Take Alex out to the playground
# Sort through more stuff to be packed
# Keep a pot and 2 skillets and put old pots/pans in the pile to be thrown out
# Clear the shelves in the living room
# Send snail mail
# Exercise

I cannot believe we're in the last week of Magnus' work. Time sure has flown. Tomorrow our car is going to it's new owner and we get paid in full for it. So we'll be car-less until Buffalo. A co-worker to Magnus will loan him a bike she doesn't use and he'll bike to work this last week. There are bus routes all near us so we're not isolated LOL :)

Well the pics are done uploading at flickr, go here to see yesterday's visit to Santa World :) Santa said it was too cold in the North Pole so he moved to Africa but it was too warm so he moved to Sweden and it's just right :D