Daily Jamie

April 28th

April 29th 

Daily Jamie

April 26th

April 27th

Feelin' Groovy

Last night my choir performed the twelve Simon and Garfunkel arrangements we'd been practicing for the past five months. The church was filled and one of the very front pews was packed with my family and friends. The music was really difficult and we had all worked incredibly hard, and while we made a lot of mistakes, we made a lot of beautiful music as well and I think the audience appreciated it. I know I did. In fact, it was kind of a dream come true. 

Daily Jamie

April 24th

April 25th

De-clutter

Today was our neighborhood's spring clean-up day and while I'm usually the first to try to plan to -whoops!- be running errands on that particular morning, this year I decided we needed to show Jamie that being part of a community comes with responsibilities. We like playing in the park, right? Gotta help clean 'er up then! I was significantly less efficient with Jamie "helping" until I put him to work collecting pinecones, which was a task so popular that other neighborhood kids got involved and I even I got a little jealous of all the fun being had. There were so many folks out helping that we got done in record time and all enjoyed hot dogs and playing around the lighthouse long before planned. We weren't all enjoying hot dogs, actually. The Swede was inside cleaning out his closet per my demand request.    

All that raking put me in a mood, so I cleaned up our own yard a bit then packed the car full of recycling and stuff that needed to be left at the dump, including - HALLELUJAH! - a bag of The Swede's old clothes for the Salvation Army bin. Jamie and headed to the lake after the dump to feed the ducks some stale break - more recycling! - before a cozy fika to celebrate all that we had accomplished.

Daily Jamie

April 21st 

April 22nd

Sports/Picnic

When The Swede celebrated his birthday this past weekend, Jamie and I gave him a baseball glove and Jamie also got his own, along with a kid-sized bat and ball. So today, after school, the two of them went to practice at the baseball diamond at the high school. Cutest thing ever, you guys. After I got off work, I picked up some McDonald's and joined them for a picnic. I got to play outfield for a bit while The Swede practiced his swing and Jamie ran bases, then we checked out the high schoolers doing tricks on their bikes and boards at the skate park. Jamie was entranced and I have to admit that it was pretty cool to watch. Though, I have to say, I really hope Jamie prefers baseball when the time comes. 

Daily Jamie

April 19th

April 20th

Daily Jamie

April 17th

April 18th
If you're up all night vomiting, you're gonna need a nap.

The Swede, Just Getting Better

Happy birthday to my best friend and husband, wonderful beyond my wildest dreams. Sharing a life with this man: that is living.

Daily Jamie

Skyfall

In the middle of an otherwise uneventful family dinner around the kitchen table, a ton of hail rained down out of a clear blue sky. Within seconds the hail became much bigger, came down harder, and grey clouds, which seemed to appear out of nowhere, covered the heavens. Obviously we were forced to go outside to get the whole experience as this doesn't happen around here often. Maybe once a year, I'd say. In our excitement, nobody stopped to consider that hail hurts, son. 

Daily Jamie

April 13th 

April 14th

April 15th

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

April 9th

April 10th

April 11th

The Business Cas Fashion Show

Ohmygosh, you guys, I found the best blouse. It's this long, silky, slouchy button-down that was so cheap I got another one in light pink a few weeks later. It is absolutely the only top I wear to the office that's comfortable enough for the weekend. And my weekend style is very relaxed so I require extreme comfort. 

Since I'm liking the slouchy button-down these days, and because I've been obsessed with florals on a black background since Emily from Cupcakes & Cashmere wallpapered her powder room in this gorgeous print (I have to be satisfied with using it as the wallpaper on my phone) I had to snatch up this blouse from H&M when all I was supposed to be doing was snatching up socks for Jambo. Whatever, I have no regrets. It's one of my favorites. 

So I've had these grey jeans for a long, long time and wasn't wearing them much because they felt just a little bit too long and I didn't have the energy or equipment to hem them properly. Then, a few weeks ago, I started noticing that jeans with raw hems seem to be making a comeback. So I chopped these to ankle length, frayed them a bit with some tweezers and voila, new pants! 

Now that the weather is warming up, it's exposed ankles as often as possible up in this gym. One step closer to skirts and dresses! At any rate, I'm very pleased to be wearing short pants and sleeves and pretending it's business casual as long as I have heels on. (Incidentally, if you've been around for awhile, maybe you've also noticed that these twelve-dollar leopard pumps I've worn almost every day for nearly two years are pretty much the best footwear investment ever.) 

My secret is out and I'm not the only one who thinks the gym is strictly for full-length selfies.

Daily Jamie

April 4th 

April 5th

April 6th

April 7th

Easter Weekend 2015

As last year, The Swede and Jamie headed down to Molsta on the Thursday before Easter while I stayed home so that I could sing at the Good Friday service the next morning and then join them at the cabin later that day. And, as usual, there were more choir members than congregants, but that never bothers me as I'm happy to sing in our gorgeous local church whenever I get the chance. I can't get enough of that place.

The Segerstens arrived at the cabin a few hours after I did on Friday afternoon and the typical liveliness ensued immediately. There were bubbles outside...

 ...and board games inside...

...and lots of togetherness. We ate plenty of meatballs and eggs and, despite Sarianne's newspaper article, a ridiculous amount of candy. I also made some headway on a thick, wonderful book since the cousins were entertaining each other for the most part. We talked about upcoming plans for spring and summer, relaxed, and enjoyed each others' company and especially the fact that we were all in the midst of a glorious four-day weekend.

Daily Jamie

How The Grinch Stole Easter

Sarianne was featured in a full-page article in a national newspaper this morning, with the headline "This Year The Kids Don't Get Any Candy In Their Easter Eggs". Setting aside the obvious thrill and pride of one's sister-in-law being that famous, I have to wonder, since the Segerstens are celebrating Easter with us, does that means I don't get any candy either? I mean, now that all of Sweden knows, we can't really go back on it, right? Or? The next three days will be dedicated to finding the loophole.

Daily Jamie

March 31st

April 1st