Friday sweets...

Busy day! Cleaned the house, did a mountain of laundry, painted some long boards for Mom, went grocery shopping and baked a little. All with big help from the girls...puh.

Anyway, this is what we enjoyed this afternoon! 

App. recipe from my head  A very simple crumble pie...
(Oven preheat to  350 degrees F, 175 grader C)

Fill a buttered pie plate with frozen Mango and raspberries.
Sprinkle about 3-4 Tbsp raw sugar, 2-3 Tbsp coconut flakes and 1/2 Tbsp starch ( potato or corn) over the fruit and mix it good. 
 Add 1/2 cup raw sugar ( drygt 1 dl), 1 cup oats ( 2 1/4 dl) 1 cup unbleached flour (2 1/4 dl) in a bowl, blend it together with 1/2 cup melted butter ( ca 125 g) Put your mix over the fruit and bake until golden in the middle of your oven. 

Serve warm with vanilla icecream, whipped cream or vanilla sauce.  Mmmm...
( I'd not call it so healthy, but tasty...)

BBQ in the Woods...

Yesterday we went on a small adventure with the Blohm's. It's been quite windy for a few days so we felt for doing something active with the kids. We have a small mountain Ryssberget, about 10 min drive from here and right now it is really beautiful to walk around up there. The plan was to walk up to a little cabin and then BBQ so we could eat our dinner outside. It's about 2 miles to walk uphill so we brought the strollers for the little ones...but I must say all 4 kids did really good both ways. Bella and Natalie ran and played almost all the way up and down without any complaints! We had a really nice and quite relaxing late afternoon/evening since it's a relatively child-friendly area to be out in the nature up there. Not too much chasing.... I can say there were alot of possibilities to get really good pictures of the kids playing BUT unfortunately I forgot to check my camera before we went and it was out of battery :-(. Luckily Johanna took some snapshots for me! I can definately recommend this little adventure to all families. Our kids had a really good time! And we were happy we decided to go and take advantage of the nice weather and once again spend another memorable evening with the Blohm's...

   Hehe...teamwork..:-)

Mother's day...

In Sweden we celebrate Mother's day the 25:th of May. We didn't do so much, but to play at the beach and have a "fika" with coffe and cake together with my dear Mom, made it a memorable day without the stress of having a big dinner or go somewhere. In the morning I also got a very nice gift from my lovely husband. He got me a special Mother's day birthstone ring. It is a custom made ring in white gold with the girl's birth stones (Månadsstenar) and also mine and Jareds. So our family is represented with jewels. The idea with birthstones are coming from the Gregorian calender, where all months were represented with a different gemstone. (Not always the same as the Zodiac stones). We have red Garnet (January), pink Tourmaline or Opal (October) and yellow Citrine (November), so I got a pretty and colorful ring with a lot of love within it...   And I must say a good idea for a gift to a mother!

I'll add more pictures later...

Summer feelings...

We have had a few days of true summer! It isn't so common for end of May to be able to walk around in shorts and t-shirt until bedtime, but it has been really nice for a couple of days. We are going to get more rain so at least the farmers overhere are happy for the shifting weather. Last week some of them already cut their first round of hay...  Anyway, we have been working quite a bit this week, but it has been a nice end of the day to let the girls play at the beach. ( I'm sorry for all beach pictures but I can't help bringin the camera...) Tomorrow it's baseball (Sölvesborgs firehawks vs. Karlskoga) for Jared so we're gonna watch some of that and also attend to an ag-fair close to Sölvesborg. Hopefully there will be some fun activities for the girls. Another fun thing is that my brother with company are planning to spend a part of their vacation in the US so we will be looking forward to seeing them overseas!

       Natalie in a dress from Ebbe, Jamie in one from Jojo Maman Bêbe

Playtime...

Thursday evening we had a very spontaneous date on the beach with our dear friends from the Blohm's family. Unfortunately the guitar master Daniel was sick so he had to stay at home. We had a lovely evening in the sun and the kids even played like seahorses in the water despite the really cold ocean.... I can say that they were happy, excited and hungry when it was time to eat hot dogs and grill some marshmallows! ( I still don't understand the thing with those sticky candy..but the kids like them and thought it was fun to find the perfect sticks to put them on...) It was a memorable evening and it is such a pleasure to watch especially B and N play together! The two small ones try their best to keep up with the big sisters, but it won't be long until they can play like equals..( or probably not because siblings are just like siblings...) I must say once again more spontaneity to the people!! Everything doesn't have to be so planned, most important is that you get together!

Thank you Johanna!! We'll do it again soon!

Something more to consider...

Well Jamie didn't have any Rubella, she had some kind of bacteria infection so she got penicillin and hopefully she'll be better in a few days. IF I'm managing to give her the nasty tasting medicine without too much problems! I can say it is very hard to prevent her from spitting it out even though I'm doing my best to make her swallow it. It worked the first two days but now...ahhh..

 After updating my knowledge about Rubella for a few days and the fact that we got an appointment for 18 mts check up including vaccination, I started more seriously to think about another big question when it comes to vaccinations in general. Is it really necessary to give vaccine to all kids for some of the diseases that nowadays are relatively harmless and in this part of the world more or less extinct  like Rubella,Measles and Mumps (Mässling, Röda Hund, Påssjuka)?

After reading some articles and studies about these vaccines and diseases with confirmed or suspected complications caused by them,  I feel that I want to upgrade my knowledge in this field!  I'll  read and try to find more significant facts in this area and also link to them here later.... I know the main purpose of vaccinate for Rubella is to protect women of getting infected during pregnancy . This because of the proven and severe risk for developmental dysfunctions in babies caused by Rubella during the early stages of fetus development. So the recommendations are that all girls should be vaccinated before 12 years old (if they haven't had the infection or vaccine), so that their future babies will be protected in case of a Rubella outbreak. That is of course important to consider and justifies that vaccination, but I've also read that this vaccine may cause unexpected  brain dysfunctions, which can lead to difficulties to concentrate and hyperactivity etc.... Somewhere I also read that at least giving Tylenol ( Alvedon, paracetamol) close to/ after the vaccination are believed ( and some correlation are proven to) actually cause Autism or create an inflammation in the brain that can lead to some form of Autism. This is pretty new studies and I will definately link to them here and read more about it when I've got more time!

( I'm aware of that I probably shouldn't even write about this without linkin' to the sources, but right now I'll do it anyway...)

 I've also read and given a lot of thoughts about the fact that so many children nowadays have some kind of disorders, dysfunctions, mental dysfunctions.. Why and how is it possible for these "problems" to increase so unbelievable fast in such a short time frame?? One thing, for sure, is that the evolution of the human brain due to natural mutation, has not caused this over a few decades...So something must somehow be causing this dramatically change in our society... Can it really be so that we for decades have been giving what we thought was relatively harmless pain reliever pills and vaccines, but infact they might cause more problems than we can imagine?? I do not have any answers, but it is interesting and important so I'm sure I'll get back to this subject sooner or later!! Anyway back to the vaccinations...If we consider the massive medical improvements when it comes to technology, treatments, methods for diagnosis etc the last 25 years, Do we continue to give this because it was determined many decades ago? Do we vaccinate to protect from diseases that are basically extinct because of an "overhanging" risk of the mortality they use to have? (Even though nowadays they can be cured relatively easy) or more in general about how we protect our society for new pandemics?  Is it mostly because " we" are so scared of seeing our children sick? And yes, it does hurt to see a child sick, and of course as a parent you want to do all you can to prevent your children from suffering. But for a few days of minor aches and sickness it might be worth the future immunity they aquire instead of giving them a vaccine that possibly can cause them lifelong problems...  I realize what I write here unpurposingly might be heading in one direction,  but I do feel that I dont know enough in the field to have a clear opinion... So, so far I'm just writing down my thoughts and I just want to bring this issue to the surface and open up for discusion...that's just me... I am well aware of the benefits of vaccinations and I'm not an all natural, no medicine, refuse to be apart of the advanced technology hater...   I've always just wanted to dig a little deeper, tried to see the whole picture and questionize some things just to become more informed...I guess that's makes me a thinking human beeing, right?

Please comment and give me more relevant links about this interesting and important issue!

Something more fun...Last week we had a few beautiful and relaxing afternoons down at the beach in Hörvik. My mom's old house (where we live now) is just 100 m from the ocean, so we are really trying to get the most out of the sandy beach while we are here and the season is right! Here are some pictures...

I got a package...

...I am now officially legal to enter the United States of America and stay as long as I want.... From the day I'll enter the country I will have the same rights as an American citizen with the only exception that I cannot vote. Puh...this longlasting process is over!

I finally got my passport back with a visa printed inside, It is a "temporary" immigration visa that I have to use until I get my so called permanent residency card ( "Green-card"), which is supposed to be sent to me after I enter the country. Since we chose to do the 1-130 visa due to family relations we don't have to worry about any more paperwork! :-)  I also got an alien registration number so I am legal to work and get a social security number ( it's like your "personnummer" that you use at hospitals, for salary, taxpurposes etc..) basically that is the same that Jared got when he got his permanent residency here in Sweden. Included with the mail was also a secret "package" that clearly said DO NOT OPEN. This is a package I have to leave at the port of entry to the immigration and homeland service.  I suppose that is all my documents and my personal file from USCIS. Hehe...it is both funny, a little bit silly and of course somewhat understandable how classified everything is... 

Children, dots and vaccine...

It is not so easy to diagnos what kind of dots and spots a little child might have...

Jamie has a relatively sensitive skin, and it is pretty common that she has some kind of dots or a small rash that quickly disappear, so usually I don't analyse so much when I see some small things. But yesterday afternoon she all of a sudden got multiple dots all over her arms, some on the back and legs and a few in her face very rapidly. Since they came so fast I concidered some kind of food allergy because she ate melon in the car on the way home from preschool. But she has had melon very many times before and never reacted, they arent so allergenic either and it didnt look like a nettle rash caused by food. She also grabbed some nectarines when we stopped for groceries, but the same with them, she ate plenty last summer...  My second thought was of course Chicken pox ( Vattkoppor) because they came so quick ( I might have missed the vague and early dots somewhere on her body) and looked like they are suppose to do. I just kept waiting for them to develop vesicles and increase in numbers overnight. BUT this morning still nothing like that. And I know one significant sign of Chicken Pox is that you'll see all phases of the rash at the same time...and they are also supposed to develop these watery blisters pretty quick. So far nothing more happend except they decreased in numbers and got more pale...She had low fever 4-5 days ago, runny nose and some wet cough, but she has been active, eating and playing as usual...

Right now I'm thinking our little one might actually have Rubella ( Röda Hund). After looking at pictures and reading some more about this condition...maybe... if it is, this disease is usually harmless, and I guess it is good if she has had it to become immune. The vaccination for Rubella isn't by standards given until they are 18 months old, so we haven't been called to do that yet. The vaccine is included in the swedish vaccination program for all children, but as a parent you can choose not to give it...I'll write more about my thoughts of this vaccination later...I guess time will tell within a day or so if we need to be concerned or not...

New in...

Both girls have been sick for a few days. I suppose it's the "new" daycare viruses that hit us. They haven't been so bad just a cold and some fever but now they are extremely energized and ready to play with others again. I don't understand how children can be so full of energy even though they are sick. Both of them need to have very high fever if it's gonna affect them alot and be noticeable in how active they are. My parents say I was the same way as a child. Anyway, tomorrow they are both going and celebrate " The Preschools Day".

Today me, mom and Natalie had a few hours lonely time when we went shopping in Karlshamn. The girls needed pants and socks. I don't know how we can go through so many leggins and socks, the only explanation must be that they grow as weed and the laudry machine eats all our socks...Well, we found some  other small things to, but since clothes are much more expensive here I don't really want to spend so much money on just basic clothes right now. I mean even the exactly same clothes at H&M for example are listed cheaper already to start with and I also get many more offers for deals and discounts from HM in USA than here in Sweden. They usually start their spring/summer sale alot earlier too because there are so many states in the country that have had warm weather for a long time... So all the stores (chains and good brands) I usually shop at will be having season-sale soon! (or more likely right now...) It has been so good and money saving  to have mother-in-law Rhonda in the USA! I can say that she has shipped over a bunch of clothes that I've ordered each season since Natalie was born! When the clothes are marked as gifts when they are shipped to Sweden you dont need to pay any extra custom fees or sales tax ( usually 25 % ) on the items value. But there's a limit to how much the gift can be worth in each package. I will definately start to shop online for more summer clothes as soon as the big sales starts so we'll have the summer closets ready when we get over to the hot, hot weather. Natalie got so excited last summer when we arrived to Missouri and she had several packages of clothes to try on! Hehe...that'd be something for the Mamas to wish for each vacation....just have a new closet delivered to the hotel room before arrival...(what a luxury!).

Here are some small pieces from today...an addativ of colors to the regular blue/whites.
(Trends this season; Fringes, Denim, and Birds...)

HM kids

HM kids 

Kappahl

HM kids

Days fly by...

Upps it's already Sunday again. and I haven't updated here... Well this week has been busy.  To start with I went to the interview on Monday morning. I took the train to Stockholm and had an early appointment time at the embassy. My train arrived already 6 a.m so I had plenty of time to eat a breakfast at the cozy Nordic Sea Hotel. It's right by the train station so I didnt have to starve for a long time..:-)-  The embassy is located in Diplomatstaden and since it was a sunny day, I took a nice 40 min walk down by the ocean along Strandvägen. Stockholm is surrounded by water and it was a beautiful morning before this busy city fully woke up... Well at the embassy everything went really smooth and surprisingly fast. I didn't really know what to expect from this interview, and now afterwards I wouldnt call it an interview...At first I had to show some originals of the documents we send in long time ago and then they had one question about where me and Jared met and if I was the mother of both girls, which of course they already know since we did send in all documents that been reviewed and approved a long time ago. So I guess this interview was more a formal meeting so I could hand in some photos for the visa and my passport in person...Other than that we only have to email another version of a document and after that they said it'll be a couple of weeks before I recieve my passport together with my visa!

It has been a long process! I'll describe it more later but even if we are a "standard"case it has been well over a year since we sent in the first papers. I cannot say it has been so complicated, just time craving. I know that many people hire an attorney to do all the paperwork and maybe have it done a little faster, but that would have been an additional cost ( on top of the regular fees) of around 3-4000 USD... And since I dont mind paperwork we thought we'd had more fun for the money. I still think we made the right decision about doing this alone! Anyway, it feels really good that we are almost done...

Today I got intoxicated by the scent from one of my absolute favourite flowers. Lilacs are now blooming in Mom's garden, and I just can't get enough of them! 

Daddy is home!

On saturday afternoon we got to see Daddy again! It's been 3 weeks since we left Montana, so it's been a long wait for us to get Dad back "home". This time at least I didn't feel it was as sad to leave for 3 weeks. The perpective of being apart for a short while has changed since we experienced almost 2.5 month apart over the winter... Anyway, it felt really good to be a complete family again!. Natalie was so happy over having Daddy back so he could to read and put her to sleep.. She has been couting the days each night before bedtime...

This last week we have been pretty busy! Both girls went to daycare/preschool to visit and prepare for staying a few more hours each week, depending on how much we are going to work. Natalie is already familiar with her preschool and all friends there so she's happy to see them again. Jamie has met her teachers and the other small kids for short whiles that eventually got longer and longer without me there. Usually the kids has a period of 1-2 weeks of shorter days before they are considered to be ready to fully attend preschool/daycare. ( Which means as many hours you are working). Jamie has been happy the whole time! It is a smaller preschool with only 10 kids for 3-4 teachers so I feel it's a calm environment. Natalie did go to this preschool when she was 1.5-3.5 year old so we already knew some of the personel and knew it was a good and safe place to put Jamie in. I can say it's still hard for my mama heart to see my youngest little girl run around all independent.. but it wasn't as many tears I had to hide this time compared with when I left Natalie for the first time! I guess everything is a bit different with your second child....
The last day of this "tryingout-period" Jamie stayed between breakfast and when they woke up after the lunch-nap. She was a happy girl the entire day, so now she's ready for longer days when we are in need of that. I'm going to substitute some so the hours they'll be there will vary.  A full day will never be longer than 3.30 pm and that will probably not happen so often. I feel ready to work, but it also feels good to know that I dont have to leave Jamie for 7-5 days to start with... The price for having two kids at the preschool/daycare including all meals when they are there is about 2000 SEK / month, so app. 300 USD for both. The prices for daycare/preschool are highly subventioned from the government (well of course it comes from tax money but anyway ...) and pretty much the same for everyone no matter how much yearly income you have.  The maximum fare differs slighty from one location to another, but in general max 300 USD for two...  I've understood it's quite a lot cheaper than the same set up in the States. I can also say that it use to be a lot more expensive here when me and my brothers were younger...

Now I'm getting ready to leave for my interview at the American embassy in Stockholm. It will be a quick daytrip to the beautiful capital of Sweden!

I'll put up some pictures later! I got my camera back, so soon I can update with pictures from Sweden and our days here! I'm also going to get a new phone with a decent camera in so it's easier to put up some snapshots again. Unfortunately my old one completely broke...I liked it so I think I'll get another Samsung and not an Iphone this time either.

Good news...

 I finally got the date for attending the interview at the American embassy in Stockholm! A day after I came back to Sweden I got the email I've been waiting so long for. It's the last stage in the visa process and means that hopefully I'll have it pretty soon. We didn't expect getting called in so quick after we flew over, but it is such a relief to actually have a time when I'm going!  All I have to do now is to make sure I got all the originals of the copies we sent in and take some pictures I assume they need to issue the visa and put it in my passport.

So sunday evening I will need to catch the night train to Stockholm so I can be at the embassy early in the morning! Jared is suppose to arrive at Copenhagen airport by lunch today, so I really hope there are no delays. I'm the only one allowed to be present at the interview therefore Jared must stay home with the girls. I'm going to fly back in the afternoon, so it'll be a quick visit to Stockholm! I'm excited and also a little nervous because I don't really know what kind of questions they are going to ask... I suppose it's not like an interrogation more future plans and about our family. We'll see, and I promise to keep you updated!

Wind of change...

I am sorry for not being able to write here for quite a while. I hope I haven't lost my "followers".  It seems like everytime I get more readers I take an unwanted break from blogging. I've been without a phone and internet for a while so I appologize for not updating...

Anyway, a lot of things are going on and has happened since last time I wrote. I don't know where to begin but well, here's the story.

A month and a half ago me and Jared started to seriously think about what we were going to do with our future plans, if we were gonna stay at the Swanz ranch here in Montana, find another ranch, move closer to Jared's family in Missouri, stay as permenent residents in Sweden, or do something completely different... It has been a lot of thoughts going on. We feel very lucky and greatful for this last year, when we have been able to experience this big family adventure. But aside of all the fun memories, it has also been a year full of planning, packing, travelling, moving and time apart from eachother... We have discussed different options back and forth, and it's so difficult to make decisions about what we are going to do (at least) for the next year before Natalie is really starting school. We feel that we still have time to try out the options we have, before we have to settle more permanent in one location. The fact that we are a swedish/american family will always be present and something that we have to consider when it comes to making decisions about how we want to live our lives, where and even which country we eventually are going to settle in...

Before we took a decision about either getting really settled in at the Swanz's ranch, or pack our things and leave, we had to consider that my visa for permenent residency wasn't done, so we knew I had to leave the country before my 90 days were over. Which meant, no matter what, I had to fly back to Sweden before Easter. At this point all we knew about the visa process was that all papers were approved, but we still waited for a date to attend to the interview at the embassy in Stockholm so theoretically it could be several months again. We knew that we didn't want to be apart for as long as we were over the winter, and we had really hoped and believed that my visa would be done long time ago....but unfortuantely not, so what was the best thing to do?

We both really liked staying at the ranch here. The setting and environment around is so beautiful, good salary and benefits, very friendly community, a charming, safe and educational little school for Natalie and the Swanz family are truly intelligent, positive, considerate and loving people that we really appreciate we got the opportunity to get to meet. Few things spoke against staying but for us as a family they were important to consider.  Since the winters are so long and sometimes rough here, we thought (or mostly me), that the ranch is in a little too remote location. It is hard to find different activities within an hour drive when you have two little girls. To get many options you have to go around 1 h 45 min to Billings and that's nothing you all of a sudden do in the weekdays after school. It's like going from Sölvesborg - Malmö roundtrip just to go swim or attend gymnastic class on a tuesday evening or so...  It might sound like a minor problem when you are at a big ranch full of animals and nature, but in the winter there are long time periods when you cant really take advantage of what the ranch has to offer to activate the kids. It might be of bigger concern for me than others because it's a new way of life for me, and that I'm so use to have things closer. I'm sure that's something I'd get use to, but it still doesn't take away the fact that there are quite a few years until Jamie starts school and that both girls need to get activated and socialize with other kids on a regular basis. ( Of course there are other kids in the area and Natalie already started to make friends and had a very good, stimulating time in school, but it is a small community and there are just not so many small kids around...) Another thing was that I felt that it'd be hard for me, even if I wanted within a year or so, to actually get a part time job because there were no daycares around in the area. I think I'd like to be a stay at home mom for a little while longer, but I am of that nature that eventually I need to work and meet collegues on a more daily basis to feel good, so that could have caused problems if I didn't even have a realistic possibility to do so.  After thinking about this day and night for quite a while, we took an emotional decision to pack our things and leave this beautiful ranch. Jared was going to stay and work for few weeks after me and the girls had to leave. Then take a roadtrip down to the family in Missouri and fly to Sweden from there. If things were different with my visa done, I think we'd stayed until shipping in October so we at least could enjoy the most beautiful and green part of the year in Montana. But there were not so much to do about that since we didn't want to split the family for a longer time period again. So after packing, crying and saying goodbye to the Swanz, me and the girls left the ranch and flew back to Sweden the 14:th of April.

Even though we technically left Montana, I really feel that at least I'm not done with this amazing state. I'm sure we will be back in Montana in foreseeable future! (And of course we will go visit the Swanz family and continue what hopefully will be a lifelong friendship!)

So right now our things are packed down and safely stored in Missouri, Jared is flying over the Atlantic very soon and we are going to enjoy the best part of the year in Sweden. After my visa is completely done, we finally have the opportunity to try to fully live in USA without having the stress that me and the girls need to leave, or that I'm not allowed to work...So no matter where the road might lead us after the summer I'm sure we will have an exciting time ahead of us!

(I will write more about Montana, the community and school another day...)