Last night in this house!

 

Started the morning cleaning out the pantry and making pancakes for breakfast while we were waiting for the packers to show up. They were here yesterday, but didn't get much done..The slowest three people that I've ever seen packing..They got a little bit done here, and a little bit here, but no room finished! So frustrating with stuff everywhere and nowhere to be able to be with the kids safe and out of the way. Yesterday, I took them for a longer walk in the morning and then I stayed with them at Pearl's house for a while before lunchtime. At noon, when the packers left for their lunch break, I took them home so that they could have their nap. A much shorter nap than normal, but still something. When it got crazy here at home, with the packers running in and out, having the door open all the time and nowhere for the kids to play, I took them over to our other neighbor Misty, that was great and took them for the afternoon.

Cassie went there too after that she came home from school, and they had had a great time with brownie and ice cream and playing. Here at home we could clean away stuff here and there and prepare what they could pack here and there, but we also all the time had to supervise what they pack, how they pack and how they mark the boxes. I don't want to end up with 15 boxes where it says "Basement" on them....I want to know if it's Christmas decorations, pool toys or tool boxes inside..

We were very upset last night thinking that no way that they will get done in time! This morning they didn't even show up until it was almost 10am. Then they started to pack all over the place again for two hours, then it was lunch break. Not much done, and today they were even 4 people here!

Benjamin and Isabella didn't have much fun after breakfast, they wanted for me to be with them all the time, and I had to check on things everywhere, pre pack up bathroom items in zip lock bags etc for them to bring any cremes etc. Luckily Misty was able to take them again. At the lunch break, I quickly went over to get them so that they could have their nap as long as possible, but they woke up shortly after 1pm when the commotion in the house started again, only after about an hour of nap, not enough! Not happy babies, but they were doing alright when I brought them over to Misty again, they had some lunch and then played for the afternoon. Me and Chris were supervising here at home, but everything takes forever! When they left today at 4.30pm, only the basement is packed up!

Cassies room, our bedroom, bathroom, hallway closet, dining room, kitchen, living room, garage still has to be finished and packed. Some areas they haven't even started yet!

The thing is this, that the truck comes tomorrow morning at 8.30am and wants to start loading up everything, so that will be interesting to see how that will turn out! It's going to be a big mess when they are going to pack while other things will be moved etc..I'm not looking forward for tomorrow!

Plus, another thing that upsets me is that we had planned to clean most of the house tomorrow after the loading of the truck, which shouldn't have taken that long. As we have to turn the keys in on Thursday, everything has to be ready, and I don't know how we'll be ready in time. We most likely are put back one day in our schedule as we have to clean, and most likely have to clean on Thursday, which doesn't lets us to leave as early as we wanted, not letting us knocking of the miles of our trip...Not fun, and very frustrating! But, there is nothing that we can do about it now!

Tomorrow they also will pick up our second car that we are shipping to Yuma. Hopefully that will go smooth, as they have caused more trouble and concern changing prices etc in the process..We are also still waiting for the roof box to arrive, I really hope that it will get here, as we need it for the trip!

The kids thought it was strange and tried to climb on top of all the boxes before bedtime, well the little ones did..:) Cassie helped keeping them off the boxes while I was finishing up in the kitchen. 

This is our messy dining room right now. Most of the things on the table we are taking with us, but don't ask me when I'll be able to get that organized. I hope that after the movers have emptied out our guestroom, I can take everything that we are bringing on our own in there, and that way I can get it packed in bags or suitcases. Our packed suitcases are still upstairs too. 

Coffee or secret message?

Last week my husband brought home a few morning coffees after bringing Cassandra to school. Very appreciated -  and very much needed these mornings. Mocha-Creme-Caramel (?) something... from Starbucks. Very good - and a very nice message too!!

1. Advent

Today, it's 1. Advent and we don't even have a candle wreath or the first candle lit. We'll have to make up for it another time. I wish that we would have the time to have some Christmas feelings, but with the stress that's going on Christmas isn't even on my mind right now. I read and see people around me shopping for Christmas gifts or getting this or that ready for Christmas, but we don't even know where we'll live or where we'll be at Christmas, so it's very different. Everything is unknown right now, and it's stressful for everyone, and this weekend we are finishing up here at home. I wish that we too could enjoy the candle and eat gingersnap cookies and saffron buns tonight!

The packers are coming tomorrow and on Tuesday to pack up the house, at that time I have to have everything that we'll be bringing with us in the car ready in a special corner that they shouldn't pack, clothes, Chris uniforms etc for work, important papers, toys, pack-and-play and beddings for the twins, snacks, cups, drinks, bottles and everything else that we need for the mainly care for the kids, diapers etc etc etc....

Anyway, enough for now, I have to get going here while the twins are taking their nap, as they are into everything that I'm trying to get organized. When they are awake, I'll pack up my suitcase upstairs, Cassandra's suitcase and her things that she'll want to take with, books, movies etc while she takes care of the twins downstairs. Chris is in Wichita for a few hours going out for lunch with some friends to say goodbye.

I had hoped that we'd be able to do something relaxing yesterday with the whole family, I had planned to take the kids to the pool in the hotel that we stayed at when we first came here to town as a goodbye thing to do, but I felt really bad yesterday, my stomach was in knots and I guess that the stress got to me. I could hardly eat or drink anything and just felt really bad, today luckily it's getting better, even if I'm careful with the eating part right now. I just looked at our 1. Advent last year, very different from how it's spent today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, as every day, I'm thankful for my wonderful three children. I'm grateful that they are all healthy and full of energy. I'm thankful that I'm blessed with them, they are such a joy and I love them with all my heart. There is nothing I wouldn't do for them, they are my everything! I get emotional just thinking about how lucky I am to have them!

I'm thankful for my family, that we have each other even if there is stressful times right now. I'm thankful for my husband and for the loving father that he is.

I'm thankful for my family back in Sweden and for my friends all over the world. I miss you all very much and thank you for your support through phone calls, emails, FB mail and comments here on the blog. It means a lot knowing that I have you all, especially at times when I miss friends in my every day life. I know I have you - just not as close as I'd like to!

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that you all had a wonderful day together with near and dear ones!

We haven't celebrated Thanksgiving today, as we had our celebration early. We had a big long breakfast which was nice, and a lot of playtime with the little ones. We watched some of the Thanksgiving Parade from New York on TV and later Cassandra watched Pocahontas (getting in the Thanksgiving mood with Pilgrims and all..)

After the twins had their nap, I went to Dillon's for some food shopping. Haha, I've never seen so few people in that store, and the ones that were there only had a few items to pick up that they had forgotten for their big feast at home it seemed..When I came home I took the twins out for some playtime in the nearby playground. Chris was watching Football and Cassie her movie, so they didn't want to come. It was nice to walk around in the neighborhood, everywhere there were lots of cars, visitors and people in and out of houses. Many of them were decorating their houses for Christmas, and now looking outside tonight, there is lights on many of the houses on our street. Normally most people wait until after Thanksgiving, but not everyone. It feels sad and somewhat strange not decorating at all and not getting ready for Christmas at all. Not even for 1. Advent on Sunday. We'll have to celebrate the best we can when we can!

So much to do and so little time..

Today we've gone through important papers and made folders of what we need to take with us in the car and what the movers can pack next week. There is so much that we need to take with us, as there is personal but also lots of military records, papers and all kind of stuff that needs to be carried with us.

We also got a visit this morning from the packing supervisor, that wanted to know how the packing was going...?? No, packing isn't supposed to happen until Monday and Tuesday! Funny also that she showed up, but no packers....but I had just said that out loud, a truck came pulling in the drive way, and two packers were here wanting to start!

Chris had to get the confirmation out that they are supposed to be here on Monday and Tuesday next week. I just feel like there will be some problems coming up....

Chris also got the shipping company booked for the second car that we will be shipping to Yuma. They will be here in the beginning of next week. We have also ordered a roof box that is hopefully here before Wednesday. Everything seems to come down to the very last minute.

After going through a lot of stuff in the morning it was time for the twins to have their nap time. Unfortunately that has become a problem, as I have to stay with Benjamin downstairs in the guestroom, and he won't go upstairs, because then he just keeps screaming and disturbs Isabella and I have two that doesn't get their nap. I now take Benjamin down here and then he does fall asleep after a while, but as he sleeps so lightly, we can't do much around the house while they are sleeping. They used to have good 2 hours of sleep a day, now he is down to about an hour and that is not enough. He is cranky and not a happy camper later on. It was really nice weather today, so after they both woke up, we packed them up into the car and went to Carey Park for some playtime at the playground there. It was nice for everyone to get out of the house, do something else and get some fresh air.

Home again, dinner for the little ones, and our roast took longer than expected, so we didn't have dinner until around 7pm, and I was starving. I didn't really have time for lunch, so I only had breakfast and some coffee during the whole day. Ben and Isabella were tired after their milk at 7.30 pm and I put Isabella to bed shortly after. She is such a good girl, goes to bed and sleep with no fuzz at all. Ben I spent an hour with again, then after a while I had to go back inside for him as he woke up, now he's sleeping again. I hope for longer, as I need some alone time and still have papers here on the dining room table to sort through..

No kiss goodnight

I feel bad right now. Cassandra went to bed without getting a good night kiss and hug from me..That hasn't happened many times in her life. The reason for this was that I had to stay with Benjamin again in the guestroom until he fell asleep, and it took forever before he calmed down. When I came out again close to 10pm, she was already gone upstairs to bed. If this would be a "normal" house, I would go upstairs right away to kiss her goodnight and tuck her in, even if she would be sleeping, but as this house isn't built to walk quietly or to sneak upstairs without much noise, I have to pass just in favor of NOT waking Isabella up, who's sleeping really good upstairs. 

Sounds like no big deal, but as she is so hard to put back to sleep when she wakes up of something, I don't want to risk that to happen. I know that Cassandra understands and she knows this, but still, as a mom I feel bad. I so hope for the new house that we'll move in to, that it will have doors, floors and stairs that doesn't crack or make noises with every step...Trust me - I'll try every door and floor out!! Can't wait to find a house, that hasn't happened yet though. I just finished looking online on the new listings of rentals and I wrote a few numbers and addresses down that we'll look at when we get there. It's no reason to call and make arrangements as we don't know for sure what day we'll be arriving in Yuma.

We know that we'll leave here on December 1, next Thursday. That is a scary thought to know that the packers are coming on Monday and Tuesday next week, and that they load everything into the truck on Wednesday and then we'll clean the house. Will stay one night here in town so that we can give back the keys and have the inspection on Thursday and after that we'll be on our way. We will most likely take 3-4 days to travel and it will have to depend on the twins how far we get every day. It takes about 24 hours of driving to get there, and we'll most likely not drive more than 6-7 hours a day with them in the car. We'll also make some stops along the way to try to do some sightseeing except the normal stops of lunch/dinner/gas/restroom/playtime for the twins to move around out of the car seat.

The last couple of days have been spent organizing, calling about all kind of things, from Electricity, Gas, Water etc that needs to be discontinued from next week. Today I've also been to the Hospital and our Dentist to pick up our Medical records. Normally when you move they will send you the records, but as we are a Military Family, we need our records with us at all times. And as we don't have an address yet, it's important to get it printed out and filed and that is something that we'll need to take with us.

Tomorrow Cassie is off school as they have Thanksgiving break, and then Chris and I will be able to get more done in the basement and also start to pack our bags. With two little helpers it's almost impossible to get anything done, and I'm happy that Cassie is such a great help with them. I hope that we can have time for some quality time this weekend with her and not just stress with the move. I already have something in mind that I know that she'd like!

Versatile Blogger Award

It's been a while now since Anna gave me this Versatile Blogger Award. I was very happy to receive it, as it's always nice to see when people appreciate what you write. Especially since my blog is more about family than funny stuff or specific things or big and heavy discussions.

I haven't had time to answer or to pass the award along yet, but now I thought that I'd take a moment and make an entry about it. 

When you get this award, there are a few things you need to do.

First: Link to the person that nominated you. Easy, thank you so much Anna & Simon aka Swaussie. Have a look at their blog where they mix the experience of living in Sweden and Down Under and every day life with struggles of settling into the Swedish way of living.

Second: Share 7 things about yourself that are not on the blog. Hmm, this is a hard one as I don't share everything personal and I'm not sure what readers would like to know..Most of my readers know me personally and to find things that are fun and "interesting" to share with "the crowd" isn't easy. I'll do my best, and if there is things that you really wonder about or would like to ask, please feel free to do so!

1. After one look into my closet, one could think that my husband has more than one wife. According to my jeans shelf there are at least 8 different women living in this house. They can be described like this:

• Size 0:  Skinny unmarried single party girl
• Size 2: A few years older living life and working around the clock.
• Size 4: Newly wed woman living on love and air....actually at this stage of life Size 2 and 4 keeps arguing who's in charge..
• Size 6: "Newly wed" woman that now has lived in the US for about 2 years and who has had American BBQ too many times....
• Size 8: Not so newly wed, stressed mom of three getting ready for another move. Hopefully the stress lets Size 6 take control again...
• Size 10: Nursing mom of twins. 
• Size 12: Pregnant woman with twins 
• Maternity jeans XL:  No comments....

So why are they all still present in the closet? Well, I was surprised myself when I went through my clothes the other day to sort out and organize. Let me tell you, it is quite the change in body from the smallest I've been to the largest....and to be honest, I don't want to be either of them again! :D Now there is only a few different sizes left "in the middle".
 
2.  Continuing with sizes, the letters and numbers in my bra drawer ranged from 75B-85DD....No one told me that having the blessing of having two babies would double the cup sizes. The term "Double trouble" got a new meaning while I pregnant and nursing.

3. I'm a Gemini. Somewhere I read that being married to a Gemini, one don't know which one of the personalities you'll have waiting at home after work. Well, what can I say, considering the first two answers I guess my husband doesn't get surprised anymore...

4. I'm a planner and a list person!

5. I love music and I'll listen to pretty much anything. Sadly though, hardly every have music playing here at home so about the only time I listen to music is in the car. (Here I'd love to be able to add, the gym too, but that would be the truth right now.)

6. I love to think of myself as someone that is very adventurous with food...the sad truth is that I always order the same: Pizza- Hawaii, Chinese- Fried Rice, Crab cakes and Honey Chicken skewers, Any restaurant: Fish, Shrimps or Chicken grilled, not fried, and no sauce or at least sauce on the side..B o o o ring, but why change a winning concept? I know what I like..and at least my husband has never any problems in knowing what to order for me or what to take home.

7. I've traveled a lot and lived in different countries, but never been to a typical vacation spot such as the Greek Islands, The Maldives or Hawaii. I have never been to Cyprus, Egypt or even Mallorca, which is very common vacation trips for Swedish people. Growing up in Sweden, we never took vacation abroad or anywhere for that matter. When I was in high school, I worked on weekends and summers to save up to pay the rent of my apartment, not going on the typical "Sun vacations". Living in Switzerland and Germany for years, I always used my vacation to go back to Sweden to visit family and friends. Since we've been living in the US, the vacation that we've had has been back to Sweden and our last vacation together was to London in July 2009. I'm still hoping that I'll once be on one beautiful sunny beach with the love of my life! (But before that happens, I hope that the "newly wed woman who lived on love and air" from my jeans shelf finds her way back..)

That was a few things that most people don't know about me, if there is something particular like I said that one would like to know, please feel free to ask.

The last thing you need to do when you receive the award is to nominate 15 other versatile bloggers. I'm sorry to "brake" the chain of sending this award further. I don't read 15 blogs every day and many of the ones that I do read, have either already gotten the award from Anna or from someone else on the list. I'd like to nominate all the blogs on my blog lists, please feel free to share your 7 "secrets" if you'd like! Because if you have "made it" to my blog list, you are special and I keep coming back to read!

18 Months Questionnaire

When we went for the 18 Months Checkup with the twins the other week, it was time again for another Questionnaire about their development. As you really have to try the different questions out with the kids, each of them, it would take way too long to do it there, so I had picked up these papers a long time ago and did it all at home in advance. We did other questions at 12 Months and 15 Months. I like these things as you get an idea about how far they should be in their development, even if they of course develop in their own paste and that's perfectly fine too. But there is so much that changes in a 3 months time span, and here you can really see the difference. It's interesting to see as well how different it is even if they are twins, they are so different, and you can definitely tell that our girl is more advanced in speaking for instance than our boy. But as the doctor said, boys are known to communicate more with " to grunt and to point" as this age.

I do as before and post the questionnaire here, as I know that there are other (twin) moms reading and maybe are interested in what they check here in the US at this stage. In Sweden I've realized they don't have these kind of questions so maybe you'd like to try them out on your kids at home?!

Isabella passed everything with no problems, and Benjamin was close from passing everything as well. He did not pass on communication, otherwise they both did wonderful. The thing he didn't pass on was questions 3,4 and 6 on communication below.

Otherwise, they did just fine, weight and length are in their 18 Months entry as always with their monthly pictures. I'm still working on their personal entry about how they are now at 18 Months. That will come when I have time to write. Lately it hasn't been too much time in the evenings for the computer as Benjamin has really bad sleeping habits..But I have already started and when they get posted they will occur under the date November 17th, their date. Somehow it's changed and the entries that I have started and saved under one date, will stay under that date when I post the entry as well. That happened with another post, Isabella's first pigtails, that I posted the other night, but it didn't show up, and then I saw that it was showing under the date further back..

Name day

November 19th, is one of those days that is special - but that always is forgotten. Being a Swede, you do celebrate your Name Day and  you know what date it's on. Even if you might not "celebrate" big you still acknowledge it and you see it in the calender and in the newspapers. Living in a country where no one celebrates or have hardly even have heard of a Name day, it's always forgotten.

Thank you to my mom, that called and wished me Happy Name Day yesterday! I didn't have many minutes to talk to her though, as I was just changing the twins and the guests were more or less standing outside the door, but it was very appreciated! I've tried many times to "introduce" the name day to my husband or our family, but with no great success. When I told him yesterday that my mom called to congratulate me, he looked at me with those eyes of "OMG what did I forget?" until he realized that there was no anniversary, birthday or anything else going on and then he knew - Oh, it's your Nameday!

I just had to look up our family to have their names saved:

• Isabella - October 30.

• Benjamin - December 28.
   
• Cassandra - February 17. (Alexandra/Sandra actually, but that's the closest to Cassandra that there is. There is no name day for Cassandra in Sweden)

• Christof - March 15. (Christopher actually)

How do you celebrate your Name Day, or your children's Name days? For you Swedes living abroad, do you still celebrate or is it more forgotten now?

Here  there were no flowers, no cake no flag waving in the sky....sigh..:)

Early Thanksgiving Celebration

Today, we celebrated Thanksgiving early together with our dear neighbors. As Thanksgiving is coming up this Thursday and we wont have any time for big cooking and no place for all the leftovers, we decided to celebrate early instead. Luckily our guests didn't mind a Turkey dinner a couple of days early. It will also be the last time that we can be together and have them over, as our move is coming up very fast and we will be busy packing and getting organized for the movers to come in a week from tomorrow.

It was wonderful to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving though, and to be able to share this holiday together. We wanted to celebrate and as we are very thankful for all help and their friendship, it was very suitable to say thank you over a Thanksgiving dinner!

I had found really cute place cards that said, I'm thankful for: and then the name. Inside each card, I had written a personal note to each person around the table. A small touch that was very much appreciated. We were so happy that the twins actually were able to sit with us at the table without too much fuzz. It wasn't really their normal dinner time, but they had some and were happy to be part of it. Cassie did great watching them as Chris and myself finished cooking and we were done in time for 4pm which was the set dinner time. A big meal like this, we really didn't want to late, especially with the twins, and this worked out great.

We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, orange juice glaced carrots, cauliflower with a cheese sauce, beans with bacon and onions, stuffing, cranberry jelly, cranberry/orange bread and dinner rolls. Even if we all were very full, we still had some apple pie and ice cream for dessert that Misty had been so kind to bring. With only one oven, we had a hard time getting all the food warm and ready at the same time anyway, so not having to worry about a pie was great! I'm happy that they didn't mind making an apple pie, as we are not big fans of pumpkin pie, that normally has a given place on most Thanksgiving dinner tables.

Waiting for the turkey to be cut!

Isabella's baby has to come everywhere now and needed a spot at the table as well!

Cassie waiting!

Quick picture of our guests while the gravy gets ready in the kitchen!

The Top Chef himself!

Say cheeeese!

My handsome guys!

Icecream!

Before Pearl went home, I took a few pictures of her and the kids. To get them all to look in the same direction is close to impossible, but at least they are in the same picture. I will develop a few for her to keep. I know how much she will miss us and the kids when we move, and we'll miss her!

When Chris had taken care of the turkey, he came into the living room with the wishing bone. Normally Cassandra and one of us have always pulled the bone, but this year we thought that the twins could do it. They had no idea what they were pulling and didn't understand what to do, but with some encouragement they did pull and Isabella ended up with the bigger part! Cassie said that she'd wish something for her, as she wouldn't know that she is supposed to make a wish. Cute, and Cassie was eager to go upstairs to find out if the wish came true under Isabella's pillow. She was a bit disappointed to find out that it hadn't. I told her that you can't make a wish for someone else - then it won't come true!

Isabella already got a tight grip....

...Ben is now pulling as much as he can..

... but Isabella won this year!

Christmas Parade

 

This morning, we left for the yearly Christmas Parade here in town. The line up was at 9.30 am and the Parade was to start at 10am. Cassandra's school was participating with the Theme Red & White and to also dress up as a Candy Cane or a Star. There were a few dressed up, most of them just had something red on though. Unfortunately, we were in the almost very back, so we missed out of most of the Parade and the floats to see what was in the beginning. I also think that a Christmas Parade should have more Christmas music and more things regarding Christmas, now there was a marching band playing, but no Christmas songs/music. Pretty sad, as it could've been so much nicer with just a few changes, I think.

Anyway, the weather was nice, even if it did get cold after a while when the wind picked up. Benjamin was a good boy and kept his Santa hat on, but Isabella wasn't in the mood for the red hat. Luckily she had a hood on most of the time. At the end of the Parade, we first waited to see if we were going to see any horses in the very end, they normally always have that in the end (due to the mess that the horses leave behind..), but the twins were getting tired so we walked home instead.

When we came home, Chris had already gotten the Turkey into the oven, and it smelled very good. We prepared the rest of the things for dinner as we had invited our neighbors for an early Thanksgiving meal this afternoon. More about that later!