Daily Jamie

August 27th

August 28th

August 29th

August 30th

Daily Jamie

A Little Bit Of Life Lately

 

Last week was a stressful one for The Swede, due to our annual audit at work, which he is responsible for. It ALWAYS goes well but he still ALWAYS gets super stressed about it beforehand. As usual, we passed with flying colors, so I surprised him with crayfish for dinner. I didn't get many, expecting that Jamie wouldn't be interested, but the little bugger loved 'em and The Swede and I spent most of the meal opening extracting meat for him. 

The Swede had a fishing-club-related event on Saturday morning, so Jambo and I lazed around on the couch for most of the morning, then rode our bikes to a nearby school. We played on the playground and built an airplane that he'd gotten for his birthday and flew it over the football field. When we got hungry, we biked home and I taught him how to use the stove and make heat up packaged meatballs. Then The Swede got home and sent me to the mall for some Mara time. I got a gigantic Starbucks latte and walked around for hours but came home empty-handed, which is probably a good thing.

Sunday was very low-key, with laundry and grocery shopping and a quick, impromptu walk around a nearby farm on the way home to check out the chickens and bunnies and horses. But yesterday we had a little excitement when our community blew up a giant movie screen in the middle of the town square and showed Mama Mia. The Swede wasn't feeling well, but Jamie and I joined Mama and Papa Swede and a bunch of family friends at a restaurant for dinner beforehand and had a great time. Unfortunately, it was way too light to see what was projected on the screen, even after they delayed the start time by an hour hoping the sun would go down enough. Jamie was so tired and bored by the time that it got going that we didn't even make it through the opening credits before heading home. Still fun to mix it up on a Monday night, though!

Daily Jamie

August 20th

August 21st

Daily Jamie

August 12th

August 13th

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Routine With A Side Of Party

I suppose it shows that we're back into our routine, because I don't have a thing to tell you about. I wake up, walk, get ready for work, wake Jambo, take him to school, work, then dinner, get ready for the next day, and bedtime. Most of those items are actually really enjoyable, but also wildly uninteresting. I supposed I could tell you about how we left Jamie with Mama and Papa Swede on Saturday afternoon so that we could go to The Swede's buddy Patrik's fortieth birthday party. I hadn't seen most of these guys in years and there were a lot of friendly new people too. We were out until two in the morning and got to sleep in till eleven, which for me is a huge success. But that's the most excitement we've seen in awhile. We have a lot to look forward to this fall, but for now it's mostly same ol' same ol'. Hang in there!

Daily Jamie

August 3rd 

August 4th

August 5th

August 6th

August 7th

That's A Wrap

With just a few hours left until our month-long vacation is over, I'm feeling pretty good about going back to work. The Swede is already back in the groove, of course, and Jamie seems positive about his return to school. Let's just see how he feels early tomorrow morning, though.

Jamie and I rounded out our time off with a trip to Eskilstuna and one of our favorite places, Parken Zoo. We spent hours and hours there on Wednesday, then stayed the night in a hotel that was right next to a brand new indoor water park. We swam until we were totally pooped out on Thursday then hopped into the car and headed to our next destination, Uppsala.

I want to spend time in Uppsala whenever possible, so we used a free hotel night to maximize our time there, but were so tired after the swimming that we spent Thursday evening in the room in front of the television. On Friday, however, we did some decent exploring, including the cathedral, which is just spectacular.

Pictures cannot do this place justice, people. Jamie was very accommodating, letting me take my time to  take it all in, lump in my throat, lip a'quiverin'.

Jamie's patience paid off because I took him to see The Secret Life of Pets afterwards. Then we went home to be with The Swede and enjoy a lazy last weekend of summer break.  

The Beginning Of The End Of Summer

The Swede was at the national championship for summer fishing then went back to work today, so Jambo and I are on our own for our last week of summer vacation. Jamie would be happy to stare at the iPad all day long, but that's obviously less than ideal, so I booked activities to get us out of the house each day. Last Friday, for example, we went to the mall and ate sushi, saw the new Ice Age movie and splashed in the fountains in the town square.

On Saturday, we met up with Erin and the boys at an indoor play land and they went buck wild in there for four hours. Afterward, we went shopping with Svante to get groceries for a delicious dinner that Erin fixed for us at their gorgeous NEW HOUSE! I'd been dying to see it and it was just beyond. Just… beyond. And, best of all, ridiculously close to us!

On the way home from Erin's, Jamie and I were looking at clouds and he asked me if we could stop the car and just lay on the ground and watch them, so we did, of course.

We spent Sunday in the medieval town of Sigtuna, where we ate ice cream, played with ducks, explored the ancient neighborhood, and admired the thousand-year-old ruins of a church. Basically my dream day.

Monday was a bit of a miscalculation on my part. I booked tickets on boat tour through Stockholm's islands that lasted more than two hours. Jamie wasn't wild about it. I was. I was not able to enjoy it to the fullest due to Jamie's… shall we say, lack of enthusiasm. We both loved being in the city, though, and I appreciated seeing so much of it that I never had before, from the water.

Today we took it easy all morning, then packed a picnic and rode our bikes to the nearby beach. It was nearly deserted and we had a super cozy time eating our little lunch and playing in the park and Jamie swam a bit. The Swede picked us up when he got off work and we went out to dinner. We have more fun planned for the rest of the week so I'll be off the blog for a few days, but I'll update you as soon as I can, dudes!

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

July 31st 

August 1st