Loving those Redheads!

Headed for Nate and Ashley's on Tuesday and have been loving the time with these 2 cute little redheaded granddaughters here...boy are they growing! Got to go to Paige's preschool this morning and have a teaparty with her...she was a great little hostess serving punch and cookies in beautiful little china cups and dishes- boy, for a 3 year old, she did a great job pouring the punch too!

Bryan's had a couple of calls and now appts. to see his house so all has been left tidy and ready. Hopefully all will go well. I will leave tomorrow for a drive down to CA to visit my sister Annie and her husband Bruce for a few days before heading out for Utah and another visit to the jameson jungle. Hopefully the roads will be clear and the traveling easy...a couple of long days of driving ahead in the next week...

Can you believe it???

The painting is finished on my house!!!

It has been a busy 9 months in my life but I will put it into one quick blog and go on. Had some trouble remembering how to get on to new posts but I'm back with the program now. Loved my time in the states with family last time...returned to Sweden and kept busy with friends, church and my house...and loving my granddaughter Zoe and her great folks! Good news...Eimi is expecting again in about 10 days...I was able to get the outside of my house painted, garage door replaced and some yard work done. I also got my upstairs bathroom installed- love it!

Just had to steal this one from your blog Eimi!!!

Came back to the US mid Nov and planned to stay until mid January of this year...kids had a different plan...family reunion in March at Nathan's house so I will be gone about 4 months this time (so sorry my dear Relief Society presidency sisters...I WILL come back and help!!!) Since I have been here this time I have spent some time with Nate, Ashley and their two beautiful redhead daughters, some time with Bryan, Mandy and their 3...Bryce is only a few inches shorter than me at 10 years old, Ashlyn is 6.5 and is full of energy and Lily is 9 months and cute as a bug (once she got used to me and quit screaming every time I got near ;-). Drove with N&A and fam to Utah for Thanksgiving with Scott and family and I stayed on with them for a while. Flew to San Diego area to spend about 10 days with Aaron and got to enjoy his new house...it's beautiful and we got to get some things up on the walls, etc. By the way, he just came in second in a motorcycle race and won his first money as a motorcycle racer last weekend...Go Aaron!!!

Back to Utah for Christmas, then on to Bryan and Mandy's again Christmas night to help them out. Low and behold, they had been offered a job at BYU Hawaii and he had to move and be to work Feb. 1st! Have spent these last few weeks helping out with kids, etc. as they sorted...packed...had the movers come in,out and then they headed off for Hawaii.


Got the house ready for sale, had an open house yesterday and look to going down to N&A's again probably Tues. WOW! If anyone knows of someone looking for a wonderful dream house on a lake in WA, have we got one for you! Check it out: www.1337RoyRoad.com

Anyway, that's my life for the last 8 or 9 months in one blog...time to slow down a bit now and I'll write more often! Hopefully!!

Talk about avoidance!

More than three months and I haven't blogged once! Kept myself pretty busy with church, home, and general keeping up...got a little painting done around the house, tried to do as much as possible in my RS calling...and on the 10th of March, I returned to the US for a visit! Flat Stanley arrived in an envelope to Sweden from my grandson Brandon and returned with me...more on that later. When I arrived to SEATAC Nathan picked me up and we had a great couple of days (including some fun times with the girls...watching swimming lessons, going out to lunch, just fun time together) before I left to drive up to Bellingham to spend that Friday, Sat., and part of Sunday with Bryan and family. How great to see everyone and see the beautiful house that he has build...watching them enjoy the space and comfort of it showed how very much they deserved it after all these years of sacrificing for it! It was a wonderful birthday dinner with them when I arrived...BBQing steak on their covered porch, with all of the trimmings for the celebration! What a great visit with all when I was there! Sunday I returned to Nate and Ashleys for a birthday dinner there and a great celebration that next day with Hayle on her 6th birthday! We were able to go shopping together for her gift and then go to lunch...she chose pizza and I've never seen her eat so much! What a great young lady!
Happy Birthday Hayle!

That Tuesday I drove to Utah...lots of snow in the Cascades, but nowhere else on the roads thank goodness! It is wonderful to be here with Scott, Elizabeth and family and get lots of grandma hugs! The most awesome thing about being a grandma! I have been enjoying my time here and trying to recoup from the flying, driving and jet lag! What a busy couple of weeks!

Bolliaden

At 10:30 pm Sunday before New Years in Kristianstad, I met the chartered bus with the youth in Malmö stake with some other leaders. What an experience!!! I was to supervise all the girls from the stake...there were only 7 from the ages of 14 through 18, two from Kristianstad Branch...many more boys....
After a cheerful send off.... we were on our way...picking up others on the 14.5 hour trip to Gävle...north of Stockholm.

What a thrilling experience it was to spend the week with the fine youth from all over Sweden...I was especially proud of our youth from Kristianstad for their appropriateness and leadership! Activities included classes, meals, dances, sports and wonderful socializing! Their were 16 girls and one other leader in our room and it was wild...sleeping on the floor (thank goodness for air mattresses!) in a school...girls getting ready for dances, etc...it's been a while for me! We had a wonderful mix of backgrounds and had prayer each night in a different language...awesome!After a fun filled four days we headed for home to catch up on some much needed sleep! An activity well worth the trip...beautiful country, awesome youth and a great time!

Jul and update on family....

Christmas in Sweden...great!!!! But as always I miss the family...Eimi, Thomas and Zoe are gone- Thailand and Indonesia. Scott, Liz and kids traveled to Spokane to be with the Stevensens- through quite a snowstorm! Bryan and Mandy went to Mandy's dad's house- at least not to far considering the amount of snow there. Exciting- they will be having a baby Girl! They moved into their new house just before Thanksgiving and are loving their warm floor heating! They are nearly finished...waiting for countertops being made, etc. How wonderful for them...it's been a long wait! Nate, Ashley and family traveled to Durango to be with Ashley's folks...quite a story of a struggle with a blizzard! WOW! Aaron spent the time at home fighting a cold...bummer!!!

In Sweden the day of the biggest celebration is Christmas Eve day...I was invited to enjoy the time with the the Sandelin family and Nancy's two sisters and their families plus 4 missionaries. It was a great time...such great people, food and fun! You guys are awesome!!!












We had Chile, Sweden, US, Germany and Finland all represented and enjoyed songs in each language! There was also a great Christmas program by the children! It was wonderful to be a part of the wonderful day!



On Christmas day I went to my friend Annita's home for a meal with her family from Malmö. I felt right at home...finding that their family was a crazy as mine!!! It was also wonderful to have her granddaughter Angelica drop by with her new baby daughter. Angelica and her husband are close friends of Eimi and Thomas...such a small world!!!
The day after Christmas I had a wonderful dinner with my friend Yolanka and her family in Kristianstad...What a great visit and meal...mmmm...mmmm...mmmm!!!!
A wonderful Jul season spent with awesome friends...who could ask for more????

Can't believe it's been 5 weeks!!!

Wow has time flown since I've returned to Sweden...been loving the time with Thomas and Eimi...we had a great Thanksgiving day (check out her blog). I have been busy just keeping up with everything and haven't gotten into any project...although I was hoping to get the trim painted downstairs, I haven't even begun! But it is great to have a Christmas tree up!


Check out Eimi's blog to see some of the other things we had fun with while they were here including Zoe's pre-school Santa Lucia program! They left yesterday and flew into Thailand and will work their way to Indonesia where they will vacation with Thomas' family who are all flying down for a vacation...such fun!


I spent a weekend with some friends at a conference and temple trip to Stockholm a couple of weeks ago which was really nice but it was a long drive...about 6 or 7 hours each way...at least the weather held up pretty well.

This last Sunday I gave my first church talk in Swedish...it was pretty simple and short but all went well...I felt a great sense of satisfaction to manage that!

I think I will spend tomorrow making Christmas candy as we are going visiting teaching Thursday and I want to take some to the sisters we visit!

RV II- the unmade movie!

Saturday morning Jenny and I started out with the motorhome to take it down to Nathan's house...about 125 miles away. We drove from Birch Bay to Bellingham where we stopped to fill up the tank with gas...found two stations having a gas war and got gas for a halfway reasonable price (still very cheap compared with Sweden!!!) and was able to fill the tank for just under $200.00- not bad! Then off we went and just outside of Bellingham...before we reached Bryan's exit from the freeway...the motorhome started acting up and I knew the belts had gone again...they broke last long trip I took and poor Bryan had to replace them in the dead of winter, in pouring rain, laying under the RV on the mud and gravel...

Anyway, called Bryan on the mobil and he met us at the gas station at his exit where he could work on the RV on the cement in fairly dry weather. He checked it out, I made the parts run and found the instructions on where the belts went (which I couldn't find last time) and he got ready to put them on and discovered that they had been put on wrong the last time because we didn't have the diagram...and soooo....I made the next parts run for the correct sized belts...he put them on and finally we hit the road about an hour before dark.

Got as far as Stanwood and the belt driving the generator broke again. Made the decision to drive back to Mt. Vernon where there was an RV campground I belong to and although it was closed for the winter, they allowed me to come in and hook up my RV to power to charge up the battery. Kim came down to pick up Jenny as she had to be home for the next day and we obviously wouldn't make it that night...so he took me to Bryan's for the night and took Jenny back home.

Ox in the mire Sunday...Bryan came down to Mt. Vernon with me and we went to Schucks with the generator, belt and regulator to be replaced...Bryan got it going again with the freshly recharged battery and off I went...got as far as 405 and the power went out again...just like when the belt broke...

Called Nathan this time...it was hillarious...the parking brake and park stopped working (just like in the movie RV) and I was in a slanting parking lot and if I let it roll, it would go out into the main drive of the lot...So after trying to run out for the wheel blocks before it got there and not making it...then holding my foot on the brake for about 10 minutes...knowing it would be at least 45 until Nate arrived, I finally cut the wheel as tight as I could and hurrah!!!, it slowed enough to run out and block the wheels without getting too far out in the driving lane!!! So I spent the time sweeping up, etc. until he arrived...

Nathan saw that the belt WASN'T broken but figured that the NEW alternator had died. He started the generator- hooked it to the running battery, charged the battery up with his truck and he drove the RV while I followed him in his truck.

We got down by the horse race track and the lights dimmed and it started losing power again. He pulled off and on the ramp, pulled his truck around the ditch side and charged it up. Apparently the generator isn't strong enough to keep it charged with all the lights on to drive at night! Truck made it out of the ditch- thank goodness for four wheel drive...and off we went again. Had to stop in Bonney Lake to re-charge the RV with the truck before making it in to Buckley...

Left the RV with Nathan at his house with the promise from him to get it all fixed up and use it some before I return home! He said I made a mistake buying the alternator from Schucks...says he's had bad luck with them...oh well...it has a lifetime warranty! Wonder how many replacement tries it will take to get one that works???? I defenately think the 2 days would qualify for "RV-2"!!












Finally arrived at Nathan and Ashley's house...looking so innocent...did it actually cause me all of that stress?????

Thank you my dear and talented sons for keeping me sane on this trip...it was a close call!!!!

Leaving for Sweden on Thursday....