Busy Bees

A chilled Saturday turned out to be not so chilled.

• Hubby went to the bootcamp, I got ready to shoot off to Fashion Island to meet some friends. Realized I fit into my old jeans again! After one hour chatting, I had to rush back to my appointment at Bellagio Spa. Had my brows wxed and a lash and brow tint. Ouch. She managed to get a lot into my eyes and they burnt like crazy. $ 65 dollars and will NOT be going back there again.

• Went to meet hubby outside  Lowe's to buy some gas for the BBQ and some other stuff. Sneaked into BBQ Galore and got some gadgets for the grill. 

• Tidied up at home, did some shopping at the Pavillions. Had some left over pizza from last night (blimey, that XL pizza we ordered really was XL). It may very well end up as lunch tomorrow, too.

• Beth came down from LA to see us. Walked to the Mexican, enjoyed some BBQ quesedilla. Had some champagne at home. Much needed catch up!

• Catching up on some blogs, reading newspapers..BED!

Summer - Stay Cool!

It is getting hot. Not that we ever have bad weather. But now it is getting close to 30 degrees Celsius these days. That is around 82 in Fahrenheit. Too hot to be in the park. So the choice is, being close to the ocean, or hang out by the pool.

Most Swedish families are disappearing to Sweden for the summer so it is getting quiet. Others are moving back. We will stay put and just do some weekend trips around California. In July it will be 18 years since I left Sweden, who would have guessed I would never come back! And I say never because I think it has been too long and the chance that we would move to Sweden is sooo tiny. I spent some months in Sweden with work back in 2006/2007 and I realised how non-Swedish I have become. At work the "fika" (coffee) breakes annoyed the crap out of me and I thought people were lazy leaving for the day at 5 pm. (Wait till you get to Denmark, they leave at 4!). Thinking back of it now, Sweden really prioritizes family life, back then work was the only thing on my mind :)
Of course I feel super Swedish as long as I am not in Sweden , but in Sweden, I feel a little bit different. Sometimes I don't even understand people. Or I mispronounce words. Like Coop. New words pop up and I start wondering how long they have been about. Softa. Messa. Fett.

Now I feel like I am just "floating" inbetween nationalities, Gavin and I kind of pick the best parts of Sweden, England, Germany and US and mix them. So far it has worked out pretty well. Midsummer, Thanksgiving, Christmas, watching the Premier League, taking the shoes off indoors, keeping the blinds shut, sitting under a blanket on the sofa, talking to strangers, drinking sparkling water..Nice little mixture. All we need now is a Japanese toilet seat, i.e. heated one. What a great invention.

 Last week I got asked what I miss about Germany. Of course I miss how exact and correct Germans are. Die Verbindlichkeit. Germans do what they say they will do. We miss die Kneipen. Having BBQs in the park. And the beer. Both drinking it and drinking it in the park. Haven't quite figured out how Americans socialize yet. It is not at the local around the corner, chatting over a pint of lager, that's for sure.

Now, weekend is here, time to enjoy!

Neighbourhood

Took a walk around the neighbourhood the other day. We live pretty much inbetween two "plazas". One is Northpark plaza which offers a supermarkets, some restaurants and shops and on the other side of the complex we have Orchard Hills, with supermarkets, some nice restaurants - including our all time favourite La Sirena - banks, and shops. Takes us about 10 minutes to walk to either one of them so we have a quite a decent spot. Even if Irvine can be annoying in the way that it is spread out, has no downtown or city centre, it does have the advantage of being a planned city. Wherever you live, you can most definitely walk to a supermarket or bank, and most likely also some restaurants.

Some pics of the neighbourhood, enjoy!

Passed

Finally, I got around to go to DMV and take the written part of the driving test. I got 100%!! Oh my, was it busy. Decided to go to Laguna Hills instead of Santa Ana, thought it might be less people and how right was I! Not that it was empty, but they showed the different waiting times per office on a board and Laguna Hills wasn't so bad in comparison. Still took me three hours. And silly me had no time for breakfast this morning and completely forgot I was going to have my photo taken so no make up and wet-ish hair. Doh!

I had a baby sitter for Emily this morning, for the first time! Ohhh I was so nervous, and I have to admit that or two tears may have slipped out while driving off and waving good bye. Was so nervous when I returned after 4 hours...was everything ok? And yes, babs had been sooo good. She was happy to see me, but also quite happy to just keep playing with Mikaela. Phew.


After this hectic morning we deserved some pool time to we went to Karin's and "relaxed" (swimming with babies is anything BUT relaxing) by the pool.

Play Date

This week we met up at the dino park in Laguna Hills. May have to swap the park for the pool soon, it's getting hot!

Chemists

Had Emily's 6 month's check up this morning, slightly delayed since she is 7 months next week. She is now 72 cm and weighs 20 lb. Just like a perfect nine months old baby! For her age, she is even off the scale, .i.e, over 100%. Our super baby!!

Of course the morning started with disasters. Hubby went to drop Alan off at the airport so we were going to meet him at the doc's. I know I slightly miscalculate how long things take these days, but we ended up being over 30 minutes late. While changing Emily's nappy, she peed and her clothes got wet. Sigh. Second attempt. Put her naked in her bed for 25 seconds while running downstairs to get the nappy rash cream. The whole bed was wet. Right. dressed her, put her in the car seat and put her in the car. Here it all started. Keys? Bottle? Wipes? Diaper bag? Finlly out of the house and garage, driving along Jamboree and there was a car crash, 2 lanes were blocked off. In parallell, I could her Emily squeezing at the back seat. Great, dirty nappy explosion.  40 minutes later, we made it.

Had a prescription to pick up after the visit and thought I'd be quick and do it at the chemist's located in the doctor's building. Now, this is what I don't get. Why does it seem to take close to a lifetime to pick up prescriptions here? All I was picking up was some cream and after 15 minutes when I asked how much longer it was going to take, I was told, at least another 10 minutes. So, grabbed the prescription and will drive to CVS later on. I don't get the orange bottles. And I don't get the whole picking up process, from filling out my contact details to signing that I received all necessary information. Slower than slow folks!

Chilled Sunday

Finally a day to relax. Went to Barry's in the morning, first time in 2 weeks and first time ever I could keep up the pace on the treadmill running up those evil little inclines. Hurrah for me. There is no better way to start a Saturday or Sunday than getting up early and get some exercise. Not sure how I ever could stay in bed till 11, slightly hungover. Such a waste!

Since Gavin wanted to watch the footie he automatically got assigned the baby duties so I took the chance and sneaked out for 3 hours. Did some shopping, picked up some dry cleaninggot my nails done..THIS is what Sundays are for... Hubby has joined a football team so Emily and drove down to Costa Mesa to watch the game.

Sunday nights are also perfect TV nights at the moment, just when The Killing finished its second season, Falling Skies started again. Only a question of time until I start dreaming of skitters. Currently we are following Fallins Skies, Dallas and Longmire. All three have turned out to be decent.

Cook Books

You should really move every two three years, not just to get organized (how much junk can you collect, right) but also because you rediscover things. In my case, my cook books! Of course I know I have several, but it you don't use them on a regular basis, you seem to forget about them...

I will definitely try to use them more often. When going to uni, I used to proof read cook books, several every week from a big publisher. Got one copy of every cook book, so yes, I have quite a few:) In addition to that, I do like buying them as well.

Some of my Favourites. Swedishes Summer Dishes, a truly spectacular Indian Cook Book and A Piece of Cake. The latter one has never let me down.

Visitors

Had some friends over from Germany last week. My tongue is still aching - I haven't spoken that much German since I left Germany in October last year. It was great  fun, nice to be able to talk about work with someone for a change. Took them down to Laguna Beach to the Rooftop for lunch. Nice food, shame about the service. Even for European standards it was bad.

Sat on The Beach for Some Hours

Rooftop, Laguna Beach. What a view!

Stuck on The Wall

What's up with the shower heads here?

Why on earth is it stuck on the wall, it makes it stupidly difficult to clean.

Grill has been ordered - we ae eagerly waiting to officially kick off the BBQ season with this monster, due to arrive on Monday.

In true American style, big is better!! And believe me, there are a lot bigger ones around! This is a Weber one - American size, German quality never let you down (I hope)!

Phew

Moving was hard! I thought I was super duper organized. Last week Friday everything was planned - Friday we had the carpets steamed cleaned, Saturday morning the moving company was going to show up at 9, Cox at 10, the fridge was getting delivered at 1 pm and everything was packed. We would move everything in the morning, would unpack during the day, and voila, Sunday we could relax by the pool.
Then the phone rang. Moving company was delayed, "We'll be there at 1pm, 3 pm the latest". Ok....At 3 pm the following day another phone call. "Stuck with a customer in LA. We will be there at 6 pm the latest". Sigh. At 6.10 they finally showed up, offering a 4th lad for $ 15/h so they'd finish quicker. So they are late and we end up paying more. Turns out, we booked 3 guys, but really it was one foreman and 2 labourer, the big foreman didn't look like he had done many moved in the past. Deal done. We got the forth lad. (Why is it, cleaning maids cost $25/h and moving guys 15? Something isn't right here).

We finished at 9.30. With a screaming baby past her bedtime and two knackered parents. The Sunday? We were grumpy and spent the day unpacking. In fact, moving with a baby is quite hard since your hands are kind of tied and get less things done. Gullible, naive me. Lesson lernt. This week has been one of the most boring ones in my life of motherhood. Trying to unpack and keep Emily happy minus getting out much. Definitely hit the peak of boredome.Crap week of football did not make things better. Sweden lost (even worse, we lost to England), Germany is doing well (bad loosers, bad winners).

Positive thing: We love the townhouse and living here. Slightly miscaluculated a few things though. Bedrooms are quite tight and furniture don't quite fit as expected. Those flight of stairs are hard work. 2 kilos gone already what more do I need to say.

Needless to say, we are very happy it is weekend again!

Double Sink in The Master Bathroom

Patio

See, no Handles!

Emily's Corner on Our Bedroom

Guestroom

Guest Bathroom

Diningroom

Kitchen with Monster Fridge

Reading Corner in The Den

Lounge

Dallas

Just watched the episodes of Dallas we taped last night. Yaaaaay! How long I have waited for this, and I was not disappointed, not a bit. Dallas and Falling Skies, starting its second season this Sunday, will take me through the summer! Been in love with Bobby since I was 8, however, a little too much botox, don't you think?

Dallas 2012

Lunch at the Marketplace

The morning started in quite a hectic. Emily and I drove up to a place in Buena Park to buy a fridge I had seen online. Felt I was in a dodgy moving for a moment. Let's see if it arrives on Friday. I have had my eyes set on a stainless stell fridge with french doors ever since I first caught sight on one at Nick and Laurel's in Sand Diego. Cross my fingers.

I refuse checks but had to give in this time since I didn't want to pay in cash. Unfortunately I made a mistake issuing it and I thought I had to drive back to get a new one. Luckily the bank accepted ut. Phew.  Also, I got carried away and upgraded the fridge to a little more expensive one. Must stop making these impulsive decisions. Especially since the funds came from hubby's account this time. Need to get some kudos for something else to make up for it. Any ideas? :)

We neded up having lunch at the Marketplace, it turned out to be a lovely sunny day despite the overcast this morning

Semi healthy lunch. Unfortunately there are few or no healthy alternatives at the Marketplace

Marketplace, Irvine, at One of the Many Foodcourts.

What a day...

Emily woke us up at 4 am, yes, 4!! Needless to say, I was in no mood of going to the gym..Since it is Wednesday we also had our weekly appointment at the Pure Pediatrics..7.45 every Wednesday morning!
Now, I am not sure what I think of it all. The diagnosis is called torticollis and some of the symptoms are tilting of the head to one side and flattening on one side of the skull. We go there, the doc does a few exercises with Emily and then we get some exercises to do at home. Which we sometimes do. The tilt is pretty much gone, and the skull is not so flat anymore so I feel we are pretty much done. And the doc seems to concentrate on E's sitting skills more than anything else. Dr X keeps in saying Emily is ahead of her age, but then I don't understand why we have to go through all those tests to see if she can do this and that.
We have our 6 month check up in 2 weeks so this will be something we'll take up.

After the doc we went to to uhaul to get some boxes. Boxes huh. No handles and they are square. Plus you need to seal them. Poor Emily - there was barely any space for her in the car once I squeezed all the boxes in. Uhaul is a great place. you can rent different sized vans and get all your boxes and moving accessories there. Outside there was lots of people looking for work.

Also popped in to the leasing office on my way to the bank. They will charge us  $ 50 dollars for cleaning the carpets (if needed) and $100 for the apartment when we have moved out. That is great and so cheap! Gone are the days we had to argue with the landlords in Germany. Always a big fight about the deposit. Although the last landlord we had before moving to the US was great. You'd be amazed though, if you knew how they try to keep your pennies.
Walked to Bank of America to drop a check off (!)  I finally got around to apply for a secured credit card (oh yes, things are slow here, after approx. 6 months I will qualify for a normal one..) and got into a lovely food conversation with the cashier who was from Pakistan. She gave me her card in case I needed help with any banking so I won't have to come in.  Now that is good networking! Talking about checks...a few minutes later when I was standing in the queue at Target, the woman in fron of me paid with a check. A CHECK!!!
Hello stone age. I mean, bad a enough they are still around, but in Target!!! You can imagine how long it took until it was processed. All the customer service in the world could not make up for that wait. Why on earth would you pay by check?

Am I Ready....

...to get up at 5 am to go to the bootcamp? I am trying to convince myself so. Not finding the time in the evening it would be good opportunity to squeeze in the exercise before hubby goes to work. Lately Emily has woken up pretty early in the morning, around 5 am. Typically enough she decided to sleep in this morning and I automatically woke up at 4.45. Had I had my gym bag packed I would have given it a go. Tonight will be another early night for me and let's see what happens tomorrow morning. I am neither a morning nor a night person. I like going to bed early, 10 pm is perfect. I don't necessarily like getting up early but I propbably find it wasier than staying up late. We are so lucky Emily is taking after me!! LOL

Playing with the thought of getting a personal trainer. To get me back on track. And do something different than just Barry's. Dieting is not for me, (eating healthy yes) so recipe is more exercise. Seems like all Swedes are on carb free diets. I have forgotten all the names, low fiber high fat etc etc.  I am not saying you should overdose on gluten and pasta but geeze folks, eating whipped cream and indulge in fat. Yikes!

Now, pack that gym bag!

New Pad, Part One

Went over to the new house the other night to do some cleaning. The last tenants of course cleaned it but I decided to sanitize kitchen and bathrooms. Sanitize is a very common word here. Never heard it so often as here. There are wipes to clean the shopping trolleys when entering the supermarkets. There are a lot of cleaning products, sanitary wipes at e.g. Target.

Part two will be the top floor and furnished!

Dining Room

Townhouse

Standing in the Dining Room Looking Downstairs

Kitchen/Den

Lounge, Standing at the Front Door

Patio

Still BBQ and fridge hunting. Big BIG BIG!

Got internet and cable sorted out today. Have to love the efficiency! None of the 2-3 weeks waiting. Oh no, we will get internet and cable switched on on Saturday, and turned off on Sunday in the old pad. No installation fees, they were all waived. Then again, we pay a small fortune for cable and internet but they gave us a good deal for 12 months and we get HBO for free for 3 months. Best of it all? No contract. We can cancel it any time.

Also found a moving company which will move us on Saturday. It is so easy to move here, not just easy but quick and easy! Only set back was when I tried to buy moving boxes today. Forst place didn't exist any longer once I got there. Second place had boxes with no handles. I didn't mae it to uhaul which was my third option because a) I had a screaming Emily in the back and b) they shut at 7pm.
More luck tomorrow I hope.

Deodorants..

There was only one thing I wanted from Germany. Deodorants. American deos suck big time. Sticky little evil things. These should take me through the summer.

Now we are off to sign the lease agreement and collect the keys. Along with the lease agreement, we received many many attachments about the Northpark rules and regulations. Took me a good while reading through them last night. I have always despised people who choose to live in gated communitys. Now we have lived in a semi gated community ourselves and are about to move to a completely gated one. I like it now but I still think it creates a fear against something which may not exist. I even caught myself thinking the other day "living in a street with no gates..well just ANYONE can walk past your house". Yep. Not sure this is a bad thing. Irvine is pretty super safe compared to any town I have lived in before.

Relaxing Friday

Had a nice visit of some friends from Germany this morning, Sunny plus wife and brother in law paid us a visit before starting their 2 week trip around CA and Vegas. Really nice to catch up! They will come back and stay with us in 2 weeks before flying back to Germany.

Since it was my mum in laws last day here we thought we'd head to the pool again. We drove over to Karin's pool so Emily could play in the baby pool. Weather was fantastic. And even better, pool was empty. When bigger kids are around, they always seem to end up next to us :).

Floaters in the Baby Pool

Peaceful

Emily has figured out how to use these floaters in best possible way: either as a walker in the water, or simply lie back and float! Super cut!!

Got back just before hubby came home from work. He decided to take the afternoon off to spend some time with the family so we decided to drive down to Laguna Beach. Walked along the beach, played with the swings and went to this new Mexican restaurant http://www.asadalaguna.com/ where I could enjoy some delicious lobster enchiladas and a stuffed jalapeno which nearly killed myself. So hot I had to gurgle coke in my mouth for a while to cool my mouth down. Who knew that an innocent bacon wrapped jalapeno stuffed with cheese could be so leathal.

New Mexican in Laguna

Gloomy Weather

Lobster Enchiladas, Nearly as Good as Javier's

Swing Time

As there was no energy left for Barry's tonight I opted for an evening swim. 20 laps in a warm, empty pool followed by a few minutes in the jacuzzi. Got to love the OC life style! We love every minute of it, so spoiled!

Seen in Laguna Beach...

Saw these two gusy walking with their dogs and the "dog strollers" yesterday in Laguna Beach. Only in California!!

A couple of minutes later I saw an old lady drive past us, in her big car with a very cute peach coloured parrot on the passenger seat. Wish I had been quicker with the camera!

After the fantastic people watching - fun with the swing!

Swing Baby, Swing