Earthquake

Had a tiny little earthquake yesterday - only 3,9 but I felt the house shake for a coule of second. Though someone had driven into the house.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/ci15139337.php

Now to something a lot more boring and which seems to be typicsl DHL. This is the second out of three parcels they have lost. This time I have promised not to ever ever ever use them again. Just send the form off. It was sent on 25 January to us. Yeap, pretty sure it has endet up somewhere else.


Big booooh for

At least I know exactly what is in the parcel this time. Not so much super important stuff, only towels etc. But we all know how crazy expensive towels are in the US right, so it would be nice to have them back

Now of to Tanaka Farms with the Swedish school. The Swedish school has such a gem of staff organising these fun things!

Aching..

Went to Barry's Bootcamp yesterday - first time in 4 weeks.  Not a great wiedersehen..treadmill wasn't so bad. But the floor. Ouch. Mental note for the future: no long breaks! Everything heavy yesterday, and, not surprisingly everything is aching today.

Weekend flew past us. Saturday I went to a baby shower, weather was great and it was fun. It was Stina's shower, she is expecting her second baby girl. Nice to have some baby free hours!

Yesterday we popped down to Rosemary and John's in Laguna, Laurel joined and we had some great Mexican food from La Sirena. The BBQ chicken quesidilla is really to die for. Very yummy!

Bought a walker for Emily - she loves it. Wasn't going to buy one first since some people say it slow downs there walking skills but we tried one in Gävle at Kicki's house and she loved it.

Yaaay!

Hurrah, it is Friday! This week has been a right pain. Hardly any sleep, flat looks like a mess. Seems like we can't get organised since we got back. At all. Emily has slept in our bed nearly every night so even when she has been asleep, we haven't slept at all.
Good news: Emily slept all night. So long jetlag! Bad news: My inner alarm clock ist set at 3 am. So still no sleep.

Friday means take out. When we lived in Germany, Friday was always take out day. A treat for working hard all week. Or, a ticket to be lazy:) No one in this family likes to volunteer to cook on Fridays so it turned out to be take out Fridays. Most likely it will be sushi tonight. That is, if I can find a new restaurant. We used to go to Tokyo table but found it a little pricey and a little too innovative. The sushi place across the road do not do take out so I will google a bit. But sushi it is!

We went to Waterworks this morning for another swimming lesson. Emily has now completed beginner's class after only 3 lessons! YAAAY! I immediately scheduled her into a new class for next week.

Now, time for the weekend!

6 Months!

It has been six months since I, 34 week pregnant, hopped on that plane to LAX. Time flies! Not for one minute have I regretted giving birth here, though it was a tough decision at the time. Missed my friends a lot (and still do) so thankfyllt, there is Skype.
A question we got asked again and again and again during our trip to Europe a few weeks ago was "how do you like it over there?" Well, I still have pro and con lists in my head. They are constantly updated :)

Here we go!

We love:

• the weather, it is nearly always sunny and warm. Right now it is getting hot hot not. So nice. I don't need four seasons, just give me one long sunny one and I am happy. Well. Christmas may be the only exception. No need for the sun to come out during Christmas.
• friendly, helpful and CHATTY people.
• laid back lifestyle. Perhaps it is because we are so close to Mexico? LOL
• the supermarkets, especially Wholefoods. All the organic food. Fresh vegetables and fruit. Helpful staff. The range of food. I can make a long long list what I love about the supermarkets here.
• space. It is never crowded anywhere. Big parking spaces. Malls have lots of space. This is something which really annoyed me in Germany. It was crowded everywhere.In the street, on the pavement, in restaurants, shops etc.
• customer service! Need to further coments..
• sporty lifestyle
• Swedes! Haven't spoken this much Swedish in years!
• valet parking when it is raining!

Not so great..

• SLOW drivers...slow walking people. Come on folks, stop day dreaming when you're driving. Hit accelerate when the traffic light turns green.
• people sitting in their cars in the car park. Eating, drinking..NOT MOVING
• all the fast food chains
• people leave shopping trolleys all over the car park (yes, such a "small" thing still drives me nuts!)
• politics! How can abortion be such a hot topic? It is 2012 after all.
• toilets full of water (splash!) and the creepy soft toilet paper (although I did experience some super rough toilet paper at my parents', the good old blue and white. Hubby thought they had stolen it from work, so say no more!)
• bread which never goes off. VERY creepy. A LOT of food here look the same after 4 or 5 weeks.
• segregation. I miss the multi cultural environment. And, charity gets a whole new meaning here.
• tipping. (you might find me being a super mean Swede, but I find 20% way too much!) but at the nail spa, and all the other places!
• healthcare system. Very backwards and SLOW. Tried to schedule an appointment for Emily yesterday. The amount of details needed over the phone, then the doctor's office phone phones the insurtance company up to verify the information only to phone me back and confirm. Yes, I can schedule that appointment. No shit!

Back in the US!

We are sooo jet lagged. One week ago I was thinking "travelling with a baby is easy, we can do this more often", whereas now I am thinking never again. Jet lagged babies are NOT fun. This morning at 3 am she was rolling around in bed, giggling and laughing. She is so much fun so it was hard not to laugh. Hubby eventually slept in the guest room.

Our holiday was so much fun! It was nice to see everyone again. I really enjoyed being back in Germany, but boy, had I forgotten how crowded Cologne is. Really enjoyed being back at work too!! Though I am glad I am observing the changes and craziness at work from a distance. So much going on right now and it feels really good to be away from it right now. Not saying I don't miss it though. Managed to meet up with some work colleagues outside work too which really meant a lot.

 Liverpool was nice too, cold and wet but cozy indoors. We even managed to pop out to the cinema to watch The hunger games. Really good movie!! Emily got spoiled with lots of attention, meeting all the relatives. We got spoiled too, not having to change many nappies during our stay :)

And then it was Sweden..we had sunshine..we had snow..and my goodness, plenty of children wherever we went. Last Friday night we had a small get together at Linda's. Anna, Kicki, Pia, Linda and I. Plus hubbies and kids. So nice to hang out with old friends and their children. Miss it already so much! Imagine how many play dates we would have if we still lived there!! Times have changed for sure. But super cool that we still meet up at night for food and drinks and bring the kids. Did so much shopping I had to leave some stuff behind for my mum to bring when she's coming over next. Children's clothes in Sweden are so very different from the US, not saying I prefer it, but change is fun!

Off to make another attempt to wake Emily up - don't think I can handle another night like the past two. Need sleep!

Sweden

It is nice to be back! We arrived Monday night, lots of luggage and just after midnight. Unfortunately we have the same crappy weather as we did in England but at least it is nice and toasty indoors.
Manchester airport may win the prize being the least child friendly airport. Lots of stairs, no elevators...Only one toilet with a changing table. None in the lounge upstairs. Booh! Even had to taste the baby formula. Not even the Americans made us do that. Britain is being super strict! Even had to fill in a landing card for Emily at the passport control. Hopefully her Swedish passport will arrive before we leave.

I always had the impression of Sweden being the ultimate child friendly country. Cologne was terrible, lots of smoke everywhere, people slamming doors into the pram or me or walking right into it/us. And all the angry looks I got in the cafés and restaurants as soon as Emily made a little tiny noise. Not even the baby shops were especially child friendly. I got both angry looks when coming in with the pram (it was raining outside, but what do you expect when you live in a rainy country?? Things do get wet!) England, well, not exactly being famous for being child frienly either, I thought Sweden would be the top country (at least that is how I remembered it) but I am quite disappointed. Steps or stairs to get into some shops, elevators but no lift...some shops are not so spacious so the pram won't fit,,,I have a long list. Hm.  It is nice to see so many people (especially MEN) out walking with prams but a lot of shops are not been designed for prams.We are definitely the only ones with a pink pram though. Yay!!

Are we perhaps getting a little americanised? I certainly miss the customer service, especially when I had to walk around the show shop earlier on today to ask for assistance. Hello, does anyone work here? Got my husband to giggle at Arlanda airport. We walked through the passport control and the dorr behind it was shut and "wouldn't open". I turned around and told the officer it wouldn't open and he replied " you have to open it". Well, I guess I will try that one immediately next time. LOL 

How do parents survive here? Getting all the kiddies dressed, going out in the rain, undressing them again...Respect! I will never complain again that it is to cold to go to the park again. Live could be so much worse.

Now, time to hit the sofa again, get some "grill chips" some Swedish sweet and do what you are supposed to do when you are at your parents and the babs is asleep - nothing.

Rain rain rain

Arrived in England last night after some very hectic but really nice days in Cologne. Could have stayed a lot longer!

We had quite a tight schedule - meeting friends non stop every day, made it to work twice as well. Would have liked to stroll around the shops to, but unfortunately had no time so we have to save it for next time.

Since we have nine hours of time difference to Germany and Sweden, it is quite hard to sort out any matter with banks, authorities etc so I tried to get as much sorted as possible. Moving countries is harder than you think, I still get a fare share of post which needs to be dealt with.All good now though!

Something which did occur to me this weekend in Cologne was how crowded it was!! My goodness, people everywhere. Bumping into us and the pram, slamming doors in our faces...And the smoking!! I honestly had forgotten what is was like to have smoke blown in my face. NOT nice. How soon you forget :)

We were so excited about getting Emily's first stamp in her American passport but oh no, when we landed in Germany they didn't stamp since she has dual citizenship. However, when we left Germany they stamped it and when we entered England, we had to fill in a landing card for her and they stamped too. Different rules everywhere:) She was such a trooper during all the flights, didn't cry at all and slept most of the time.

Now, time to catch up some reading online and some blogs!