kseenaa: (PotC Mr Cotton)
2018-07-31 02:21 am

Update on life... My birthday, big organization of our home, and vacation things...

Let's continue with where I left off. With my birthday. Or should I say... the day before my birthday.

Since earlier me, my MIL, my mom and my brother planned a HUGE clean-out off our storage. (All swedish apartments come with at least one storage in the basement.) We decided to clean out both the small one and the bigger one.

None of these storages have been cleaned out since Mr P took over this apartment from his mom. So you can imagine how full they were. The big one, that is like a room, a moderately small room. You couldn't walk into said storage, it was so packed full of stuff.

Now Mr P he is one of those people that say things like: "Let's take care of that later." "Let's put it in the storage for now, and deal with it later." Thing is... that 'later' never happens. Instead our storage just got fuller and fuller and messier and messier. And I couldn't stand it, so I arranged this huge clean-out.

That I wanted my brother there is that he has a calming effect on Mr P. Mr P has a very short temper when it comes to things like this. Not violent, but he gets very angry, annoyed, irritated and such... Usually over dumb things, or small things.

Gladly it went really fast! Mr P and my lovely brother took care of the bigger storage, and they were fast as fuck! We'd rented a small truck, so they drove that back and forth to the waste disposal site and the charity. Me and my best friend Ylletyg took care of the smaller storage, trying to be just as fast. We also bought two storage shelves that we put in the bigger storage so we could get some order to the stuff we decided to keep. Which was not much.

Meanwhile my mom and my MIL took care of Alexandra, amusing her. And made sure there was food, FIKA and coffee plus tea for us that worked. :-)

Once we were done, our storages were probably the most ordered storages in the house. :-D SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS!!!

Day after that, it was my 41st birthday. We took it very easy. Just took the last stuff to charity. Went out to eat lunch at our favorite FIKA-place. Was REALLY nice! And then we visited my MIL, she's awesome so that was also really nice!

Then we went home and just took it really easy. :-) Perfect birthday!

After that, I got REALLY inspired by our success. So I did a huge clean-out of our walk in closet as well. It's not a big walk in closet, actually quite small. Just big enough for mine and Mr P's clothes. And towels, sheets and such. Sounds big? Trust me, it's not. With all the things in there on shelves and stuff, you can only be one person in there at a time.

Add to that all the stuff that Mr P figured we could "take care of later". Yeah, there were so much stuff like that in there to, you couldn't see the floor. I rest my case. :-/ But I managed to clean that place out to! ALONE!!! AND got Mr P to clean out all his old disgusting T-shirts as well! AWESOME!!! So that place is in order to!

Day after that, I cleaned out a small closet as well. It was supposed to be a closet for coats, jackets and such. But… There were SO MUCH STUFF shoved in there that had been in there since Mr P moved in after his mother. :-/ Now we can actually use it for what it’s meant to. For coats and such. Which means…. I could organize our hatrack where you put hats, coats and such when you walk in the hallway.

Fuck yeah! Inspired much? You bet!

So today, I’ve organized and cleaned out some more! Me and Mr P has a shared desk in the living room with our two computers. It’s our nerdcorner. (See below at my current location…) There’s quite a few desk drawers in it, and they were full of just… stuff. So today I cleaned out and organized those to. :-)

Of course, we’ve done other things as well.

In between the cleanin out and organizing, we’ve been on a mini-vacation trip to Kolmården for two days. :-) It was Alexandra's wish to go there, since they have a small amusement park in the middle totally based around the swedish comic and cartoon character Bamse. Alexandra loves Bamse, she has a subscription on the comic, so it does end up in the mail now and then. And she has ALL the cartoons as well. :-) It’s a very very swedish comic, and has been around for so so many years. So I think the part of the park with Bamse was her favorite. My favorite was to see the birds of prey show they had and also the dolphin show they had. I’ve been there a few times as a kid, but it was sooooo different now. :-)

Anyhow, we had a GREAT time while there, even though our feet and legs were very tired. (I tracked how many steps we walked with the pedometer in my phone, and in two days we took about 23000 steps or more… o.O)

It did rain A LOT for some of the first day, but it wasn’t cold so with umbrellas, we had a good time still.

Rain is desperately needed all over Sweden. And well, all over Scandinavia, to be honest. We have a terrible drought right now. There’s wild forest fires in so many places here, it’s crazy. Not close to us, gladly. Mostly in the north of Sweden, past the polar circle (!). Not joking. There’s huge big forests there, and since they are so dry, well…

The king of Sweden, His Royal Highness Carl XVI Gustav was there encouraging the fireworkers the other day. They seem to have most of the fires mostly under control now, but yeah… It’s been somewhat insane.

Anyhow, between all this and a trip to Gothenburg and Universeum (which really is not built for people with a fear of heights… Poor Mr P…), I’ve kept busy. In a good way.

Mr P told me sternly that you’re supposed to relax as well during your vacation, meaning I’m too focused on organizing and cleaning out things. Well, I’m relaxing as well. Promise. :-) I did today, when Mr P took Alexandra with him to the zoo, so I had the whole place for myself for a couple of hours. Bliss!

This entry is cross posted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Me Birthday Icon)
2017-11-12 01:01 am

Birthday party and best friend talks...

So, Peting had his birthday party. It was actually a lot of fun!

Mom wasn't here, but she'll come over tomorrow. I can't wait. My little brother was here and I gave him a great big hug, because I've missed him. I've missed both my brother and mother lately, because life and especially work has been just a little bit crazy. And still is, to be fair, even if it does feel like I'm more in control now then I was before.

Anyway back to the birthday party!

Peting's relatives and mom came over, obviously, which was a lot of fun! I love my MIL, I really do. I do know she reads here at times though, and I found out later that she was worried I was mad at her about all the carb-talk, but I'm not MAD. I was IRRITATED about it, but you know. Big difference. And that comes and goes to. There was not much carb-talk today though, maybe a mention. And I did give her a grand big hug telling her I do really love and she is a great MIL. WHICH IS TRUE! And not just something I say. I've written that more than once during all the years I've written here. It's funny really how much like my mom she is, even though my mom is loud and boisterous and my MIL is more subdued. They're still very much alike in a very good way.

There was a lot of gifts for my dear Peting. He got a Yoda bobble head that Alexandra had picked out. Well, to be fair, she'd said that 'dad needs a Star Wars doll'. Said and done, we went to find one. We did, in a game-store. But she wanted to buy the big Yoda softie, which was... a bit big and also a bit more expensive... *LOL* So we went with he smaller bobble head one. :-) He got a gift card to buy something there to, and a thermometer that tells you the temperature both inside and outside at the same time. So he was very happy. Especially when he got a even bigger gift card from his aunt, so he'll be buying A LOT of games in the future, I'm sure. *LOL*

What with how stressed I'd been lately, I didn't bake that much. I made a classic swedish birthday cake with a marzipan cover and swedish farm cookies (on Peting's request), and my dear best friend made salmiak macrons as a surprise! Oh, and I'd bought chocolate chip cookies from a teen at the school I work, since his class collected money to go on a trip together. :-) So there was plenty to eat for FIKA!

Before FIKA we had lasagna that Peting had made. He's REALLY good at that, and it tasted DIVINE!

To say everyone was stuffed after that would be an understatement. *LOL* So the little birthday party was a HUGE success!

My best friend lingered though, and we had a loooong talk before she left. It felt really good. We've both felt a bit exhausted and down lately, so just to sit and talk for hours was JUST what we both needed, I think. We've known each other for so long now 25 or 26 years, I think. So we know each other inside and out by now. And we know that sometimes we have to push a little to get each other to talk. This time I needed a little pushing. And she knows just how to. She didn't leave until a bit after 8pm, way after Alexandras bedtime. But she got to stay up a little longer today since it was a special day and all.

Thank anything holy for my best friend. Seriously. I don't know what I'd do without her. She's so good at getting my head straight when I mess myself up. She claims I do the same to her, even though I don't know how. Maybe I don't have to? Safe to say we help each other out when we need to. :-)

Now it's defiantly bedtime, and I'll get to hang out with mom tomorrow. Awesomeness!

This entry is cross posted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (I think I can)
2017-10-23 12:34 am

A little update just for the hell of it...

This is just going to be a quick little note. :-)

I've just got caugth up on all my f-lists, but am a bit behind on Twitter and Instagram. So, yeah... Getting there with social media.

Family is doing pretty good.

Well, Peting has been feverish and have had a HORRID cough lately, but he is SLOWLY healing. He got NO patience though.

Alexandra had a fever for a little while to, but it passed quickly. I think she had the germs Peting is struggling with now.

I'm stressed as per normal, but I feel like I have things moderately in control at work now. At home though... Well, since Peting been sick, he doesn't want to do ANYTHING! And when we usually split things, and now we haven't... Well, that means I've had to do the majority of the household work as well. So yeah, not happy. I don't get it how my brother does it that is a single dad with two kids. o.O

Anyhow, we'll see if I can keep it up with LJ/DW this time. I do feel so much better when I write here. It's strange, isn't it, how just getting your life down in words makes things better?

This entry is cross posted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (TH Bill fluffy hair 1)
2017-09-28 11:59 pm

Visit to brother, riding and my damn ears!!!

Onwards to some real life updates and stuff, because well... why not? It's what I do, what I use this journal for. To get stuff off my chest, good or bad. And if anyone reads, than that's fine to. :-)

Last weekend not so much happened, but the weekend before that me and Alexandra went by TRAIN to visit my brother and his kids.

Alexandra had never been on a train before that. To say she was existed would be... a bit of an understatement. To say the least. She did great though, and it ended up being a great experience. Now though she keeps nagging us that she wants to do it again. X-D

We also went to the big public pool and spa and sporting arean called... Arenan. Yeah, well. The public pool part of the house is AMAZING!!! Seriously amazing! :-D It was smaller and not that much to call home about when I was a kid, but since they renovated that place, it has ended up really amazing. So we had a really good time there me and my brother with our kids. Alexandra was extatic since she loves going to public pools AND hanging around with her cousins.

After that we went home to my brother and made his specialty for supper... Meatball pizza. X-D Kids loved it, and after that they just hang around watching TV, since they were so tired, so it was easy getting them IN bed. Harder to get them to sleep since they were so happy to have a sleepover together... Cousins... *LOL*

Once they fell asleep, me and my brother tried some strong liquer and baked a cake, cookies, muffins and spongecake... Because the day after that my brother had his birthday party!

YES! My little brother turned 36 years old! YAY!!!!

And Peting came as well, of course, and after the birthday party we just went home and collapsed.

It was a GREAT weekend, and I have to agree with Alexandra there... We HAVE to do that again! :-D

After that it's been work, work, work... daycare, daycare, daycare... Split up with visits to the stable.

Yes, I haven't mentioned that, have I? Alexandra, my dear darling daughter, who has nagged us about horses and wanting to start riding has finally started to do just that. I think she started to beg about it when she was around 3 years old. Thanks to her cousin being a seriously horsecrazy girl, and still is.

So every Saturday we go to the riding school, and she has about a 45 mins riding lesson. Alexandra is VERY shy around new people that she doesn't know, to the point of it being almost annoying. But at the riding school, I guess there's HORSES!!! So who has time to be shy then? *lol*

Last weekend and this week though has been less fun. Night between Thursday and Friday Alexandra started coughing. And coughing and coughing and coughing and coughing... All night long. So I stayed home with her during Friday. While she kept coughing. Alexandra had croup as a baby, so as soon as she starts coughing... she is REALLY COUGHING!!! So we spent Friday in the cough watching weird cartoons. Moderately enjoyable, until...

My ear started to hurt and feel weird... And as soon as something effect my ears, my tinnitus goes high wire and is getting REALLY NOISY!!! I usually don't notice it, but yeah...

Alexandra stopped coughing during the weekend, but my ear and also the other other ear just kept getting worse. The noise going louder, and I started to be hard of hearing. Worse and worse...

Worked Monday, since my schedule was SMACKED FULL! Managed being bought supper in the evening by my workmates since I'd had my 40th birthday this year. And, during my workday, looking good while being photographed for the yearly school catalog where there's photos of all the classes in the school and all the staff. :-)

And I managed a visit to the nurses office/care center as well! Where I got medication that you drop directly into your ear, so I started doing that right away!

Tuesday, worked my gruling ten hour day, and felt worse and worse, my hearing got worse and worse, and it was a pain in the ass to try to hear what the patrons in the regular library was saying...

So, Wednesday onwards I've been at home. I rarely call in sick, since I'm the only librarian at the school, and they rarely very rarely take in substitutes for me, since it's not easy being a sub for me since I have everything in my head... :-P

Unfortunally though my ears haven't improved. Instead it feels like they've gotten worse. :-/ And of course Alexandra got sick as well Tuesday running a high fever. Today though she was perfectly fine, so she's going back to daycare tomorrow. Today she's pulled me down and talked straight into my ear. And I had a hard time hearing her despite that. :-( I feel horrible about it.

Plan for tomorrow is to someone get to the nurses office/care centre to get more help, because I can't be on sick leave any longer!!! Besides, I'D LIKE TO BE ABLE TO HEAR WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING TO ME, THANKS!!!!


This entry is cross posted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Cat Magical Moon 1)
2017-07-13 03:18 am
Entry tags:

And after all that fun... Mom's broken elbow and her great loss...

Yes, indeed.

I've now posted about our great vacation and all that... And now we'll go to the horrible things that have, pretty much, happened at the same time. To my mother.

It started the day I drove [personal profile] snowstormskies to the airport, I think. Or the day before that. Mom called and told me she'd taken a fall on the cobblestones in the city where she usually goes to shop. She'd had her dancing shoes on, with a little heel. The heel had gotten stuck, and she'd fallen over. Hit her elbow, her chin and her knee. She thought she'd just twisted her elbow or stunned it, and figured it would pass by itself. Even went to visit my brother that day. He said her knee and her elbow had been really swollen, and he'd told her she was nuts not going to the ER. But hey, she was in a good mood and not in much pain.

However, that night her elbow had gotten worse, so she'd gotten her gentleman caller to drive her to the ER. And... she'd broken her elbow. Badly. They did x-rays and after seeing the doctor there, they told her they couldn't help her there since the elbow was just such a broken mess it needed to be replaced. And that specialist was in Gothenburg, two hours from there and he'd call as soon as he had the possibility to do the surgery. Most likely Friday.

The Friday we were going to Astrid Lindgren's world, mind...

Both me and my brother sighed, but were prepared to cancel our trip so my brother could drive her to the hospital, which he has done to everything nearly so far. She, however told us in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that we should go, have fun with our kids and as soon as she'd wake up she'd call us so we'd know she was fine.

Me and my brother was a bit nervous about it, but OK. Our kids were all excited about going so off we went (and had a great time, as you've seen). On Friday mom called and even though she was groggy from the medications and all that, we could hear that she was doing fine. The surgery to replace the crushed parts of her elbow had been a success! No complications, she'd done great before, during and after the surgery. SUCH A RELIEF!!!

Considering our dad died when doing a replacement surgery in his hip, our mom hurting herself and ending up doing surgery DOES make me and my brother somewhat nervous. BUT THINGS HAD GONE FINE! She just had to stay at the hospital for a couple of days for observation and to start learning how to train her elbow to make sure it didn't lose muscle and all that...

So that went well!

And, yesterday, she was allowed to come home. So, my brother and his kids picked her up all hugs and all that. And went home to my moms house, so they could spend time with her in the evening and make sure she was settled after being away from home for... four-five days.

They walked in the door and first thing she saw her cat Ozzy, her HUGE Maine Coon cat, unmoving on the carpet where he usually sleeps. Now he barely moved... nor breathed. Cue panic.

To mom her cats are her sweethearts. They're her babies. And she loves them SO MUCH. Nearly as much as she loves me and my brother and her grandkids, I'd say.

My brother just helped mom get the cat in his carrier, then he took her and his kids and the cat to the animal hospital, which is quite the drive away, but he just did it. He, as I, know how much those cats mean to my mother.

When they got there Ozzy was so weak, they didn't dare to put him through x-ray, he was placed in intensive care with extra oxygen to help him breath. Mom was a mess, totally heartbroken.

They stayed there all evening. There were a few exams of Ozzy, although they didn't dare to disturb him to much. Apparently his intestines were clogged up for some reason. And they suspected he'd eaten something that wasn't good for him. Telling mom and brother there were nothing they could right now, Ozzy would be under constant watch in intensive care and they'd call them as soon as they knew anything or there were any changes.

So they left. And shortly after they came home to moms, deciding my brother and both his kids spending the night at moms... (Brothers kids didn't want to leave their grandma alone... gawd, I love those kids!) Anyway, shortly after they came home around 11pm late late at night, the animal hospital called. And Ozzy had died when they'd tried to take a sample of his blood to find out what was wrong with him.

Beautiful, majestic black gentle giant Ozzy had died right then and there.

*sob*

Mom is ABSOLUTELY heartbroken. That huge cat was her baby boy. He and his best mate Eddie, a small lean farmcat. Eddie and the other two cats she has, Måns and Svea, are all alive and well. But yeah. Mom is so upset, heartbroken and sad over losing Ozzy, I just can't even.

They buried Ozzy in her yard today. Next to the two cats I grew up with 20 years ago, Pyret and Ida, and her other Maine Coon, Sigge, that also died after being attacked by a wild animal. My brothers kids and mom had picked flowers, and my brother dug the grave.

If you have any good thoughts to send to my mom, please do. We're all heartbroken over losing Ozzy. He was a HUGE gentle giant and a true personality. He'll be greatly missed.

RIP Ozzy.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Me Fae Pink)
2017-07-12 01:31 am

Vacation time... Part two: A short trip to Astrid Lindgrens World!

Let's continue from where we left off, shall we?

After I'd dropped [personal profile] snowstormskies off at the airport, I went straight home. We had dinner, and... we packed.

Because the day after that, we went on a little trip with my brother. To Astrid Lindgrens World. It's a park built around the worlds and characters from the books written by Astrid Lindgren.

We were going together with my brother and his two kids, which had Alexandra totally excited! We'd rented a cabin and my brother brought his caravan. :-D We didn't get access to our spots in the camping ground until after we'd been at the park, but it didn't matter. It was the park we were aiming for, after all. :-D

First day we walked around the most. We aimed to see a few shows/plays they have around the park. It's split up in various areas, each for a book and their characters.

That first day we saw most of the park and the various themed areas. And of course caught a few shows as well.

Thing is, each area has seatings around the main building of the area. And there's shows and an actor playing the character is there during certain times. So we caught a couple of those shows/plays. About 20 mins long each.

We caught Brothers Lionheart, Pippi Longstocking and Karlsson-on-the-roof that first day. It was lovely! The actors were great, and clearly cared about their characters! Even the kid-actors!

But the best part about this park is, I have to say, how damn well made the place is! There was no plastic, no cheating, nothing like that. The whole place is built with pure craftsmanship, and a skilled one at that! If it was a wooden house, it WAS a wooden house built from the ground up, even the miniature once! A stone wall, WAS a damn stone wall even if it might not be a big one, but it was built as if it could have been! There was no cheating going on.

Even in the restaurants and FIKA places, you had real plates, real glasses, real mugs. No paper or plastic. The food, sweets and FIKA-snacks? All produced, baked etc locally. Everything tasted damn homemade, and was DELICIOUS!!!

Price? Not to bad. The entrance fee was the highest, but once you were in there everything but food and souvenirs was for free. And not even the souvenirs were hugely expensive! But those for later. :-)

Anyway, we enjoyed ourselfs. The kids ran around and played and explored everywhere. At Ronia the Robbers area, Matt's Fort, Alexandra fell and scratched the palm of her hand and was very upset. It was just a small scratch, but she did walk around begging for bandaids all day. She get it, and then after a while she pulled it off and wanted a new one... Thank heavens the staff at Astrid Lindgren's World was both kind and patient! :-D

Less than an hour before the park closed, we left and went to get my brothers caravan set up and get to our cabin. Which we did. And the cabin was GREAT! Very beautiful and comfy. And my brother could set his cabel up, so he got electricty in his caravan. :-D All good! And he also invited us over for a mini-barbecue, since he had his mini-grill with him. So we had hotdogs as a late dinner before we all collapsed in our respective beds. :-)

Photos from Day One at Astrid Lindgren's World (multiple on each!): One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six

The next day it was RAINING!!! Pouring down when we all woke up. But at the point where we'd emptied our cabin and all kids had eaten, been to the bathroom and you know... all that. It had stopped raining, but the sky was still grey, so we made sure to have the proper equipment with umbrellas for us adults and for the big kids, and Alexandra had rubberboots and half her rainsuit, just the rainpants since she wanted her normal jacket and an umbrella like everyone else. Deal!

Said and done and we went to the park with the goal to see as many shows/plays as we could possibly figure out! The park had an app and, of course, a brochure where all the shows during the day is listed.

We aimed for Matt's Fort, area with Ronia the Robbers Daughter, and to let the kids have fun on the way. But, on the way we stumbled upon Madicken's area as well! So we stopped to check their show before we moved on... And suddenly someone started talking and singing close to us again when we continued! We'd stumbled upon Rasmus and the Tramp as well! *LOL* Amazing! So we watched them as well. :-D

Then, finally, we arrived at Matt's Fort to watch Ronia, her robber father and all his robbers! IT WAS SO GOOD! For those not knowing, Ronia the Robbers daughter is my favorite book! I ADORE IT!!! So to see it on a tiny stage, part of the story, that was AMAZING! So good! Also, they sang the songs from the movie, which I loved, and it was just all around great! The kids loved it to, since the robbers sang good and were some funny characters to. :-D ALL GOOD!

After that we focused on the kids favorites... First off Emil of Lönneberga! So we continued on to that area to watch a show play there. It was great! So funny! And the songs written for that story and movie are so so so good! Probably some of the best written for Astrid Lindgren's stories, to be honest. So that was great! And the kids loved it!

We'd forgotten to eat, so we took a break for food, then we went to watch Pippi Longstocking again, because she's Alexandra's favorite and she's the youngest. ;-) The other two kids loves her to, so that was an easy decision! So went there, the kids played around with a ton of other kids in Pippi's house and then we watched Pippi. Just as good and funny as the day before. Best part was to see how Alexandra got all into it as we watched Pippi. *grin*

Then we had some FIKA, because dads need coffee... *lol* Then we went back to Emil of Lönneberga and watched another play there... Again, very funny and the songs are WONDERFUL!!! Emil is not my favorite of Astrid Lindgren's character, but the songs are some of my favorites. :-D

And then... it was time to leave. In between the shows, the kids walked around and explored. Checked out things. Tried things. And we bought homemade candy. And they just enjoyed being together as cousins. My brotehrs kids, Tilda and Theo are 10 and 8 years old. And Alexandra is just 5 years old. But Tilda and Theo are WONDERFUL with Alexandra, really loves her! Makes sure she's OK, they don't run away from her, they help her climb around in all the fun houses, explore things, explain things to her... It's just... They are just SO GOOD with her! I LOVE seeing it!

Anyway, we finished our day with Alexandra getting a toy there. Since she's learned to use the toilette properly instead of the potty. *lol* Positive reinforsment. ;-) And I figured she'd pick a Pippi doll or an Emil doll, since those are her favorites. But no. OF COURSE she picked a softie toy... a softie horse. Pippi's horse. *SIGH!* We have so many softie-horses at this point... Not surprised though.

And then we packed up, and started our journey home. After about an hour we split up, my brotehr and his kids going one way and we the other for another hour and a half. Then we were home, and all of us collapsed in the bed after getting our bags up to the apartment.

It was a great, great, great trip though! I had SUCH a good time! And us adults decided that we have to do something together next year to, because we all had such a great time. :-D

Photos from Day Two at Astrid Lindgren's World (multiple on nearly each!): One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven

And that concludes my vacation adventures! We were supposed to go to the coast to, but the weather there was supposed to suck during the time we were there. And who wants to be at the coast and not be able to swim, eh? So no. We'll do that at another time.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Tea loved)
2017-06-30 01:46 am

Midsummer 20017 - a little report.

If you remember I didn't do that good before Midsummer. And in the end, that might have been a blessing in disguise. Which sounds weird as fuck, but hear me out here.

I was still down and a bit out of it during packing in the morning, to the point I almost pissed Peting off, because he figured I could try to see something good with the trip. And I did!! I did! Meeting my huge insane extended family is GOLD! It was what kept me going, to meet them all at my aunts as she holds her annual Midsummer party the day before Midsummer Eve.

So, once we packed (which actually went surprisingly well... very surprising!), we were on our way to meet up with my aunt and her family. One of my cousins are still globetrotting, which she's done for years, but her two siblings would be there. Those three cousins are the closest to me of all my relatives. We grew up as siblings almost, since our mothers are so close.

We hung out with my aunts husband (totally awesome!) and one of my cousins until my aunt got off work. Then we just hung out, talked and helped her. Alexandra charmed everyone that saw her, as par usual, even if she was very shy at first. Also normal. Peting left early, since he had an 8 hour drive to do from my aunts to his friend further north in the country.

Which is part of what stressed me out and left me feel totally out if it. Because now we're basically dumped at my aunts. I didn't know when my mom was going to show, and I knew she just wanted us to drive her to the next party with her gentleman caller and then we'd be abandoned at her home for Midsummer Eve. Just me and Alexandra. By ourselves. During a holiday usually celebrated with family. (Unless you are a teen or of drinking age, then you just get drunk.)

Either way, it felt really depressing and stressful. My aunt hugged me lots and kept saying her sister was insane that she didn't want to hang out with me and Alexandra on Midsummer Eve when we so rarely get to go to visit her.

A bit past 8pm Alexandra was starting to whine that she was tired and wanted to leave and go to bed. She was being very good and had stayed up more than an hour past her normal bedtime, so totally understandable. I had a ton of packing, so I asked my aunt, cousin and some more relatives to help me carry my stuff to mom's car, since she'd arrived an hour or so earlier.

And then it started. How I was supposed to drive her and her gentleman caller here and there BEFORE I could go home to moms and put me and Alexandra to bed and the things there was in the fridge for us to eat, classical Midsummer food, and this and that and I just...

I lost it a bit. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I did. So mom and aunt and one of my second cousins (that I adore) saw and heard.

Everyone hugged me and helped me and all was good. I drove off, just me and Alexandra. She was sooo tired, but was doing good and even though I said she could sleep in the car, she didn't. The phone went off twice during the drive, but I couldn't answer and drive at the same time during the evening, so I figured I'd see who it was once Alexandra was in bed.

She did great, went to bed at mom's feel asleep and all, after almost an hour (!), but that was expected when not being in her own bed.

Checking my phone while unpacking the car (headphones is the shit), it was mom that had called and texted me. She was upset I was upset and all... and when I called her she said she'd cancelled her plans with her gentleman caller so she could be with me and Alexandra.

I felt bad about that, guilty that she cancelled her plans. I had her car, but some relatives drove her home. We hugged and talked and it was all good.

We ended up having a GREAT Midsummer Eve! Probably the best one I've had in a couple of years. Ever since Peting started to go visiting his friend by himself, I'd say. I kept feeling guilty about ruining mom's plans, but it faded eventually.

My aunt and her husband came over to, and we had SUCH a good time! We really really did! Mom told me she had such a great time to, and I believe her! I could tell she wasn't just saying that.

We ended up staying with mom for a whole week! :-D Midsummer Eve and Midsummer Day just me and Alexandra. Peting joined us late late Midsummer Day. The day after that my brother dropped off his kids, and they stayed there as well for the rest of the week. FULL HOUSE! *LOL* It was great. :-D It really was. Alexandra had a blast the whole time. There was much giggling to be heard every night when them three kids was going to sleep. *LOL*

And I managed to relax to! Me, who am always stressing over one thing or another managed to STOP doing that and just... relax and hanging out with the kids. It was GREAT!

We took it easy at mom's, went to the public pool, cooked and baked together... It was WONDERFUL! I could see mom had a blast to being surrounded by all three of her grandkids at the same time, which is pretty rare.

So that whole trip ended up amazing, even if it had a very rocky start. :-)

On Sunday [personal profile] snowstormskies is coming here for her, by this point, annual visit! I think it's the fourth time she visits, unless I've lost count. *lol* We don't have any huge plans. Just to hang out, visit mom and go to Karlsborg's fortress. Going to be nice, I think! :-D

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (GoT Sansa Looking Up)
2017-06-21 11:58 pm

Midsummer depression and summer-plans...

Midsummer. Again. :-/ Ever since the disastrous trip to Peting friend a couple of years ago I feel really horrible during Midsummer. Which ALSO bums me out, because Midsummer used to be one of my favorites holidays during the year. :-/

*sigh*

Thing is, it has gotten even worse. Because since my mom meet her gentleman caller, she goes to parties with him on Midsummer. So... Me and Alexandra is pretty much dumped all alone at Mom's house during Midsummer.

Peting is going to his friend in the north this year to. And mom, well. She's going to two Midsummer parties with her gentleman caller, which makes me feel even more down. I mean, we're not able to go visit her that often, but still he goes first. :-/

If I'm jealous? A little, yeah. If we're there, why doesn't she want to hang out with us? When her gentleman caller is there, it's... I don't feel as comfortable. I don't know. It's odd. :-P

And I feel horribly guilty for saying that to. Because Mom seems to genuinely care and love him. *SIGH*

As you can clearly see I am not doing quite good right now. I hope I'll feel better shortly. I do have my vacation from work right now. Which doesn't mean I'll have it slow.

Oh no.
  • 22 - 28 June, Being at mom's and celebrating (ha!) Midsummer.


  • 2 - 6 July, [personal profile] snowstormskies are here visiting, which I'm SOOOO looking forward to!!!


  • 7 - 8 July, Astrid Lindgrens World Park with brother and his kids as well.


  • 10 - 12 July, Going to the coast and staying at a luxury hotel for two nights. Hopefully the weather will be nice...


  • 17 July, going back to work. So there's a lot of things going on. Fun things! I should be happy about it! It's just.... A lot. And then Midsummer... UGH. Next year I'll be renting a car, because that would take a load of the stress for me, to be quite honest.

Wish me luck tomorrow?

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Me Springtime)
2017-05-30 05:07 pm

100 questions meme: Day 72 - 80

Work is as crazy as ever. Hopefully next week it will calm down enough so I can actually breath. It’s… yeah. It’s not good this year. :-P

Have some questions instead so I won’t fall behind too much. :-) I WILL finish this one off, dammit!!!

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you'll forget it?
Yes and no. In the end, I’d have to say yes. If I don’t put down things I need to remember in writing, I’ll forget them. Without fail. It’s why my calendar is so important to me. I have all the stuff I need to remember there both for work and for family-life. I just panicked a bit when I forgot it at home one day when going to work…

73: what are some of your worst habits?
According to my boss I have a tendency to act like a teenager sometimes. *LOL* In a not good way, I suppose. Like, if there’s a bit to much going on and something just gets thrown at me that I have to deal with I can go in a total ‘nope’-mood and just refuse to do it. Which is OK privately but not professionally. :-)
I also get stressed and feel absolutely horrid if I make someone disappointed for whatever reason. I have a tendency to take things upon myself thinking it’s my fault.
So those two are the main ones.

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.
Not my best friend, just a note. ;-)

A strong tough person who's been through something that is possibly a nightmare for many. One I first meet this one things were pretty bleak for them. Hiding away from the world, only going out at night, hiding from the sun… We’ve had our fights, for sure… Disagreements and such, but I think we’ve gotten better friends because of it. We got to know each other very well after just a short while. This friendship is very dear to me, and it has definitely changed me to the better, I hope.

75: tell us about your pets!
I’ve grown up with cats my whole life, and I currently have two. Two black farm cats that we picked up from a friend to Peting’s mother. They’re both pitch black with just a hint of white on their chest. Pretty yellow eyes to. :-) They are getting old now, around 12-13 years of age. Since they are indoors cats, they’ve kept healthy their whole life, and have just a bit of overweight, but nothing to be concerned about according to our vet. We do take them on checkups and shoots once a year. :-) Even though they are sisters and look just the same, they are very different personalities. Skuld is a bit standoffish, does not like to be picked up and if she wants cuddles she comes to you, thank you ever so. Verdandi we can pick and do almost anything we want with, she likes it and goes along with it. She’s more social than Skuld. The weird thing though is… when it comes to Alexandra it’s the other way around!!!! :-D Skuld searches Alexandra out, and Alexandra can do whatever she wants with her! Verdandi though does not like Alexandra and usually goes the other way and avoids Alexandra as much as possible. She can stand her for very very short amounts of time though. Verdandi has her places in the apartment that is just hers where she goes to get away from Alexandra, which we’ve taught Alexandra to respect. :-) They are our furbabies and definitely a big part of our family!

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren't?
I’m at work and should probably fix up new books so they can be put in the shelfs, but fuck that. I’m working until 6pm and I’m not in the school-library, so I can’t be bothered today. :-)

77: pink or yellow lemonade?
Ehr… Both? :-P

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?
If you mean the minions from the Despicable Me movies, I like them. Not a fan, but they're alright and mildly amusing in the movie. :-)

79: what's one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?
Oh gawd, I can’t think of anything. o.O I mean, my kid does cute things all the time (when she doesn’t have her horrible morning temper…). So I could pick anything she does! Her hugs are the best!
My brothers support when I’m feeling down is also out of this world! He might be 35 years old, but he can be such a cutie sometimes it’s hilarious!
Conversations I have with Peting is the best, and he can say the most wonderful things to me sometimes. They’re not romantic. He doesn’t do romance or romantic things. But they’re still cute and great lift-me-uppers. :-D
When my mom, who is 63, tells me, who is 39, that I’m still her little girl… :-D That’s pretty cute, right?

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?
One wall is black with hints of bamboo on it. And the other three are white with birds sitting on bamboo sticks. :-) And yes, we picked them wallpapers out together me and Peting. Put them up ourselves to!


All the questions! )

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Afraid of growing up)
2017-05-02 10:21 pm

100 questions meme: Day 20 - 52

Catching up a bit with all these questions here. :-) Let's see how it goes... And if anyone has the stamina to read all of them through. X-D

Question 20 - 30 )

Question 31-40 )

Question 41 - 52 )

All the questions! )

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Me Deergirl)
2017-02-11 12:45 am

10 things...

I totally blame [personal profile] sireesanwar for this... But since I've had a blah-I-have-no-energy-and-feel-worthless kinda day today, I figured why not.

1. When you are sad or depressed, what do you do to cheer yourself up?
Movies/tv-shows, cats and/or computer. That's my go to when I'm tired or feel sad. Also hugs from my family is a perfect remedy. We talk alot me and my hubby Peting, about everything, so when I feel down I talk about it and when he feels down he talks about it. And that helps a ton to. I talk a lot with my best friend when I feel down as well, which also helps. So I guess those are what I go to.

2. When you are studying or just hanging out, do you prefer noise (music, people, whatever) or quiet?
I'm a horrible student. I just want to put that out there. How the hell I managed to get a national masters degree is bloody miracle. (Thank you Chigrima! Couldn't have done it without you!) I need a bit of background noise, since if it's to quite my tinnitus will drive me nuts. I don't notice it if I have a little bit of background noise. If that's music or the TV or whatever, it doesn't matter. But not to much or it'll end up a distraction instead.

3. Are you superstitious? If so, how much...very, or just like the "well I don't walk under a ladder" type?
I am a bit. My paternal grandmother was a quite old fashioned farmers wife. With all the superstition that comes with it... And she taught that to me and my brother. It didnt' stick with my brother, he is more hands on and have ended up a farmhand and hobby-mechanic as an adult (and is very good at it!). On me however, it stuck. Some of it did. I still make a curtsy towards the full moon for good luck. And when I grew up she and I had a special wish-tree that we hugged every time I visited and whispered our wishes to it. Black cats, throwing salts, broken mirrors, not walking under ladders, ghosts, spirits... All of it. She believed it all. Funny enough, I grew up with black cats and now live with black cats. But I guess my curtsy to the moon outweighs it... Who knows? :-) And I firmly believe that in the vast woods and wastelands and after death.... there's probably things we can't explain with science... Science can explain sooo much! But not all... That I believe. :-)

4. You're going on a road trip across whatever country you live in. Which three fictional characters would you bring along if you could?
That was a tough one. Hmm...
For survivability in the wilderness I'd bring a couple of elfs from Elfquest. Probably my favorite Strongbow and his wife Moonshade. I'd have food and clothes with them, since she is the tanner and seamstress and he is the best archer and hunter there is. Plus I'd get warmth from their wolfs.
If I'm not traveling through wilderness, I'd go on the back of Chibs Telfords bike or on Bobby Munson's bike from Son's of Anarchy. Those are my favorites from that show, and those who does have a heart and not throw violence around just because they can. They are very very capable of it, and are dangerous men, but still... I'd feel the safest with those, I think. And I doubt anyone would mess with me when traveling with them. :-)

5. Are you vegan, vegetarian, selective ("just chicken" or fish or whatever), or ALL THE MEAT YAS?
Ugh. I hate this question. Well. I eat meat, and do try to buy meat from animals that have grown up as locally as possible. It's very VERY rare that I buy meat that is not swedish.

6. Do you prefer spicy, sweet, salty, or bland food?
Depends on the food. I have a sweet tooth from doom, so I love anything sweet. But not FOOD! I like it spicy but not to much when I eat food. There should be some taste to it, but I got sensitive taste buds, so if you go all gungho with your species I'll run off. :-P
I love FIKA though, and do that often. And I am a huge lover of anything chocolate. Not the mention I drink a lot of tea, and always have honey in it...

7. Coffee, tea, or?
Tea. Always tea. I have two Contigo West Loop thermal mugs, and I have one with me at all times with tea sweetened with honey in it, whether I am at work or at home.

8. Chocolate: milk, dark, or white? Or *gasp* none?
All the chocolates all the time! :-D When baking, I do use dark nearly eclusivly, but when eating it's milk or white or both... It all depends on what KIND of chocolate we're talking. :-)

9. Are you in a Hogwarts House? If so, which one?
I even joined Pottermore for this. :-P And I got Hufflepuff. Can totally live with that. :-)

10. What are your plans this weekend?
It's Friday today, haven't done much of use today at all. Tomorrow me and family are going on a shopping-trip to buy new phones for me and hubby. Since ours are kinda giving up on us. We got them before kiddo was born, and she is turning 5 this summer so... Plan is first, groceryshopping. Then, memorycard for phone. And then, lunch at kiddo's favorite FIKA-place. And then we go for our phones! :-)

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2016-05-02 10:57 pm

Health and Game of Thrones (Spoilers under spoiler-tags! Be careful!)

WTF, Game of Thrones? Seriously? UGH.

First though, health. I'm getting a cold. Again. And it has made it's home in my throat. Again. *grump* I did stupid this weekend digging around among my medieval clothing and stuff, and to say my asthma went high wire then would be an understatements. Stupid. So to say my breathing has been fucked up these last couple of days would be an understatement. :-(

Visited my brother Sunday which is always awesome. :-)

And today I had Dogge Doggelito coming to the school to have lectures for the 15 and 16 year old kids. Man, he was AWESOME! And such a nice guy all around. :-D Worked ten hours though and with the above mentioned health issue, I am now EXHAUSTED!

But I did have energy for Game of Thrones. And I liked most of it. I did. I especially liked Theon and Sansa, although seeing Theon leaving was... sad. :-/ I liked him with Sansa, but I guess the guilt was to much for him poor guy. I don't think his sister will be happy to see him back though...

And Ramsey Bolton, wtf with that character!?!?! Anyone with even the littlest bit triggers need to just change the channel as soon as he shows up. For serious. And now he'll be even more dangerous. Especially since he disposed of his newborn brother and his father. Dude. Cold.

No sign of Daenerys yet, but on the other hand we got some sign of life from Bran Stark, which was nice. And we got a flash back from Eddards childhood. Really sweet! (Oh, Hodor is apparently a mystery to! Interesting!) And hey, Max von Sydow played the three eyed raven! MAX FUCKING VON SYDOW! I love that old man! He is SUCH a great actor and has SUCH a presence even at the age of 87 years old. Dude. He'll probably die in front of the camera. He is AMAZING! I love him.

Sorry about the fangirling there...

Then there's Thyrion who probably have the biggest freaking balls of them all. He's a dwarf and he goes to release two dragons that probably just sees him as food... Only they don't, and man, that scene was AMAZING!

But what really bugged the hell out of me was... Jon Snow. I never really liked Jon. He was to good. To noble. To nice. Only time's I could stand him was with his friend Sam. So I was thinking good riddance with him when he was stabbed.

And now the big shocker in the end is that the red woman brought him back (despite having lost her self-confidence and is doubting in her faith).

So now Jon fucking Snow is back.

I'm not happy about that. At all. :-/


This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2016-04-02 02:44 am

Friendscut, Easter, work, LARP.....

So... I decided to cut a bit more in my flist. I'M SO SORRY! I thought I'd be able to keep up the way it was, but... apparently not. I really really hope this was enough of a cut so I can keep up now. Since I kinda don't want to cut more. To those I had to let go, it's been GREAT knowing you!

Anyone is OF COURSE free to cut me from their f-list as well. I don't mind at all. :-)

And now onwards to something totally different.

Easter was great, it really was. We went to my mothers and spent the night and got spoiled. As per usual. :-) Mom's gentleman caller was there to. They spend as much time as they can together. He is really nice, with a great sense of humor and makes my mom very very happy, so I am happy for her.

I did do one stupid thing though. My sensitivity against cats BLEW UP! Because I forgot to eat my meds. :-P You're supposed to eat them a few days before exposure to whatever it is you are allergic or sensitive against, and... I didn't. Stupid. *face-palm* I have no problem with our cats, but moms? Yeah, problem. And I can't help but cuddle with them, because they are GORGEOUS! And LOVES being cuddled. And totally spoiled. :-)

Plus I got to meet my wonderful, wonderful little brother that I love so dearly! And his kids! BONUS! :-D

So we had a great time!

Only sad thing was that when I talked about my job, which I am sorta proud of managing the chaos and I do very much care about the kids... I found out that mom's gentleman caller was somewhat racist. :-/ Fuck. As soon as he found out the amount of refugees it's in the area I work and sorta how many refugee kids there is at the school I work at... The previously relaxed happy talk turned... less so. Geezes. So disappointed. And he clearly hadn't read up, because he didn't need to, according to him. 'That kind of people are always like that.' *head-desk* UGH! So I just stopped him right there and said I would NOT discuss this until he'd read up on shit and knew what the hell he talked about. 'The Koran tells them to kill and harm.' Seriously? BULLSHIT! Open the damn book before you speak! I am so not talking about my job near you ever again.

Anyway, so apart from that, I had a good time. And Alexandra to, which was wonderful. As always though, she hardly ate anything. And then we came home Monday afternoon and she ate to much and to fast and... threw up all over herself at bedtime. *SIGH* So I had to stay home from work one day so she could recover from that.

The three days I did work has... been both lazy and batshit stressful at the same time. Yeah, I don't even know. And there hasn't been any kids in the library either, or the entire school! I got emails about meetings left and right and... Then noticed that on Wednesday and Thursday next week I'm supposed to be at two or three places at the same damn time. WTF??? I had to ask my boss what to give priority to. *shakes head*

Thank heavens it's the weekend now. And this will be a good weekend, I just KNOW it!

Tomorrow I get to sleep how long I want. SO RARE! SO NICE! OMG! I LOVE MY SLEEP INS! And then tomorrow night it's LARP-night. And I'll play my mentally idiotic but physically extremely strong Gangrel vampire... Let's see how much trouble I can get her in this time? X-D I've played her for nearly 4-5 years now, and she's a riot to play. She really is. It has ended up a bit of a sport for me to see how much shit I can get her in and if I can even get her out in one piece. X-D So far so good. She's still alive (sorta) and kicking. ;-)

I also thought the post apocalyptic Fallout LARP last summer would be the last one in that world/setting, but I found out a few weeks ago that there would be a new one this year. Since the city was NOT going to destroy the lovely military training area were it's been held, but instead restore it somewhat and clean up all the shit in the area. AWESOME! Means there will be A LOT of LARP's and soft airgun games and paint ball games and other sorts of nerdy activities there... And the city gets paid a nice rent every time anyone wants to borrow the area. ;-) Win-win for everyone! It really is a perfect place for a post apocalyptic LARP!

And in a couple of weeks there'll be a special vampire-LARP to! Set in the same world we normally play in, but the medieval ages. [livejournal.com profile] peting73 didn't want to go, so told me to. :-D YAY! Gonna be fun!

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2016-03-09 02:43 pm

About me - the open book!

Can I just say HOLY FUCKING SHIT IN THE OCEAN?!?!?!?! o.O Now I've been part of friending memes before, many times. But I've never EVER been a part of one that has taken off like this. My flist is BURSTING! Geezes, fuck! o.O

Excuse the language, but yeah... o.O Circling the wagon -friending meme rocked my socks off!

Anyway, so part of the deal was to make a post about myself, so here goes... I'll excuse my wordiness right away.

So we begin.. )

Education and work…. )

Family... )

Fandoms... )

Hobbies... )

And I… think that’s it. Props to you if you got through all that. Told you I was wordy! X-D

If you got any questions, I’ll be happy to answer. :-) I really am an open book.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2015-08-26 11:53 pm

My busy summer: A visit from my british friend!

Gawd dammit, my life! I'll get to THAT little issue in a post or two, but first...

The visit of the ever awesome [livejournal.com profile] snowstormskies!

I don't see it, but apparently visiting me is a lot of fun. [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni said the same thing when she visited. :-)

[livejournal.com profile] snowstormskies was here last year during the summer, for about 6 or 7 days. This year, she stayed for 8 days. Not counting the days she was flying. It was AMAZING!

We didn't do any HUGE or AMAZING things this trip. :-) Mostly just hung out... shopped a bit... and enjoyed talking together.

There were two 'big' things we did though!

We went to visit Läckö Castle, which is ALWAYS a gorgeous gorgeous place! My favorite castle, to be quite honest. I have a thing for the ceilings there, for some odd reason. *lol* The artwork on the ceilings are somewhat mindblowing, because... you know... it's on the ceilings. ;-) And they're from the 1600's. So impressive!

We spent the entire day there and in a tiny fishing village close by called Spiken. All in all a very very lovely day!

Another thing we did was to meet up with another TH fan that I'd found out lived close by. Like, REALLY close by! In the same city as all my relatives, basiclly. So about 1½ hours drive away from here. So we packed all of us in the car and went to see her! Since all FIKA-places were close on a Sunday we then continued to my mom's and spent the day there. A bonus was that my mom got to hang out with Alexandra and vice versa. Alexandra really loves her grandma, so win-win!

LitenSpindel / Zarlina was a lovely lovely woman! Was a bit weird to speak about TH in swedish at times, but it was also a lot of fun to know that a diehard fan is that close by. We mostly kept to english though. :-)

And my mom overfeed us as per usual. X-D

Talk about visiting people, we also visited my lovely brother! [livejournal.com profile] snowstormskies claimed that my mom lived very much in the middle of nowhere. At this, I laughed. Because my brother REALLY lives in the middle of nowhere. He can't see his neighbours, for example. They're that far away. And it's only woods, fields and cows around his house, basically.

[livejournal.com profile] snowstromskies was very convinced. *lol*

My brother spoiled us with lovely FIKA, of course. He is great at baking, believe it or not, so it was DELICIOUS!

We also had a movienight with my best friend [livejournal.com profile] spicehobbit. Or whatever to call it. Since we watched 50 Shades of Greay. AND OMG IT WAS SO HORRIBLE! Me and [livejournal.com profile] spicehobbit made sure to get good and drunk while watching it to even stand it. [livejournal.com profile] snowstromskies doesn't drink so she was screwed. And not in the good way. Really not.

What stood out mostly to me, apart from the creepiness and stalker stuff and all other failures... Was that the main characters (and the actors) had NO chemistry WHAT SO EVER! WTH? This is supposedly to be kinky romance... It would help (at least a little) if the main characters at least looked like they wanted each other. Now it just looked like they'd do anything to be somewhere else.

So much fail. I wouldn't have watched it if it wasn't for my awesome company, just saying.

Another thing, not a huge thing maybe, but still... We alos had a spa-day. Which was a bit complicated, since the spa at the hotel was very booked, and they were short on staff during the summer. Every time we tried to go there it was either closed, fully booked or there were some other issue.

Troublesome.

The day before she left though, we went there. No treatments, but we DEFINLTY enjoyed ourself in the spa's relaxing area. So so SOOO nice!!!

Then I drove her to the airport and there was lots of hugging and a selfie no less before she borded and was gone.

For this time. She sounds determined to come visit again next year. She's welcome to! It is really a thrill to have her here!

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2015-05-31 03:23 am

My dear friend visiting me from New York!!!! (Image-heavy!)

Note: This post was written a few weeks ago, but I didn't get the photos uploaded until now...

And then there was the visit from New York. I still have a hard time believing they’ve really been here! o.O

I was a bit panicked before they came here, since I was supposed to work both days they were here, Friday and Saturday. Friday was no problem to take off, but the three hours for Saturday was a bit worse. Eventually we found someone that could help out, thank gawd… So I was off and available for both days! WOHOO!!

And I was SO NERVOUS! I mean, I’ve known [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni almost since I started to use my LJ, and man… that is a LONG TIME AGO! I didn’t remember how we’d meet, but Ruchi did, so she told me. :-) Apparently she’d ended up in an idiotic drama in a Xena community and I’d stood up for her and also gone to her LJ to say hi. Eventually we ended up friending each other and that’s how the story goes. I don’t remember this, but I’ll take her word for it. ;-)

Anyway, [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni is a vegetarian, so the Friday she and her best friend was to arrive, me and Alexandra started with a slow morning and then we went grocery shopping for vegetarian food. Once that was done, we went to the train station to pick them up.

See, they’d explored Sweden quite a bit before arriving to me. They’d been in Stockholm, the island Utö, Gothenburg and then me. For a history geek Stockholm is perfect. There are SO MANY museums there! You can learn quite a bit of swedish history in Stockholm alone.

Then they’d been to Utö which is a gorgeous island in Stockholms archipelago. And then they’d been to Gothenburg, which is the neighbouring city to Borås. So it was a short trip to Borås. And me. :-D

I was so nervous while we shopped me and Alexandra I had a belly ache. X-D Stupid, really. Like [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni says, we’ve known each other so crazy long we shouldn’t be nervous about meeting!

Alexandra thought it was fun to be at the train station and just wanted to go on the trains! Eventually they showed up though, and I gave [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni a great big hug. And it felt JUST RIGHT! Nerves just flew off of me.

And Alexandra started whining right away. Great… Figuring she was hungry we went home to my apartment first, where I cooked Alexandra food (definitely hungry at that point…) and [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni could explore my little home and I could get the groceries away. And we talked. Talked and talked and talked. Sara, [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni’s friend was very nice and waxed poetically about the swedish coffee!

We had a lovely time watching Disney Junior with Alexandra and making sure she got some food in her (and feeding Sara a swedish meatball).

Done with Disney and food, we went to the hotel where [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni and Sara were staying, and Alexandra fell asleep and took a nap. GOOD!

Then we figured we could go downtown for a FIKA! Which we did, even going to mine and Alexandra’s favorite fika-place. You think Alexandra behaved? Alas no. She was IN A CRANKY MOOD! And was going to make sure everyone knew about it.

Cranky Alexandra is cranky... )

I’d thought we’d go exploring the Textile Museum after our fika, but Alexandra was having none of it. At that point, [livejournal.com profile] peting73 was off from work and halfway home, so we went to pick him up and dumped Alexandra on him. (Sorry dear!)

Finally we could go to the Textile Museum, which was great! Even if we could only stay for a short time, since they were closing and all that, we still made the most of it. They have old clothes in a part of the museum that you can try on, which had [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni and Sara go a bit nuts! Pulling me into the crazy we had a bit of a dress up session. *lol* Was a lot of fun! The exhibit they had going of a famous swedish designer was nice to, so I’d call that a successful visit.

Being silly in the Textile Museum! )

I think it was on the way back to the car that we checked out the University Library which is right next to the museum. [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni loved it and wondered loudly why they didn’t have libraries this nice at the universities in New York? Uhu… I wouldn’t know. X-D I thought New York University was a good one? *lol* And hey, you got New York City Library which is out of this world if I’ve done my research right. ;-)

Interior of the University Library in town )

Then we went home to my home again for dinner, which [livejournal.com profile] peting73 had cooked and it was DELICIOUS! Such a nice vegetarian stew! Alexandra was cranky again though (sigh) so she got the leftover meatballs from lunch.

The rest of the afternoon evening was spent talking. Talking, talking, talking. Both me and [livejournal.com profile] peting73 are some serious history nerds, movie nerds and book nerds, so the swedish part of those subjects were definitely covered. (I’m still amazed how little you learn in the US about WWI and WWII…) Alexandra eventually went to bed, and we made MUDCAKE! And had an evening FIKA! (You can never have too much fika…)

New Yorkers in my couch! )

At one point during our discussions we discovered it was 1am in the morning! O.o OOPS! So I drove [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni and Sara to the hotel making a plan for the morning.

And that concludes day 1!

Next morning we took a slow morning for Alexandra’s sake, but we still managed to head out at around 10am. First stop was the big city library where I used to work. Again, [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni waxed poetically about how nice it was. *lol* I loved seeing her walking around in the library among all the books. If ever there was a book nerd, it’s her. For serious. *grin*

Alexandra loves the library, so she was (for once!) in a good mood in the kid section checking out all the picture books. We found the book I bought for my brothers kids, the POP BOOK! X-D So I had a little story time there for Sara and [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni. It’s a kid book and kids LOVE to talk about pop! X-D

Exploring the city library and being booknerds of all sizes! )

After that visit we got in our little car and drove to my brothers. Which takes 1½ hours. And it’s a bit cramped in the car… But we made do, and we had some lovely discussions in the car to which made the car-ride feel shorter.

Once at my brothers, we found that he was enjoying the sun on the backside of his house, listening to music after he’d baked a cake. A MUDCAKE OF COURSE! This seems to be a running theme during their visit… I have to send them the recipe… *lol*

And as soon as [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni and Sarah saw the cows grazing on the fields around my brother’s house, they got all excited and got in the field (past the barbed wire) to say hi to the cows. My brother, who works on a farm on a daily basis was a bit flabbergasted at this, but went with it. So we showed them a good way to get to the cows and my brother started talking swedish farming with [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni and Sara since [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni is a vegetarian, so she was really interested. Swedish farmers have a TON of rules they have to follow, more so than many other countries apparently, which she found very interesting. :-)

Also, my brother had been an idiot and [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni went into Doc-mood and checked his eye since it was hurting him and got quite red and irritated. If you are doing any welding, people. Use protection. And don’t do like my brother who just closed his eyes. IDIOT!

After we’d eaten mudcake and said hi to cows and tried to get Alexandra to eat anything (impossible since she was still grumpy), we left my brothers and went to moms instead. My brother came with in his big huge car, a Ford Galaxy from the 1960’s, which [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni and Sara rode in with him. On the way to mom’s we saw some elks/moose which got the New Yorkers all excited.

New Yorkers on the swedish countryside! )

At mom’s, Alexandra perked up a bit. She’d had a nap in the car, and hey… Grandma is always popular. :-)

More vegetarian food at mom’s, she’d made a full on dinner with some vegetarian beefs she’d found. ‘It looked interesting, I had to try!’ was mom’s reasoning behind picking that. They were made out of quorn and DAMN they were tasty! Even Alexandra ate quite a bit! So we were all stuffed after that dinner!

After that we walked around and explored my mom’s yard and grounds. The garage which still looks like when my dad lived. The playhouse dad built for use when where kids from scratch. The view. The woods where we used to play. Our neighbours, closest one where the daughter in the house was the one who started off my bullying. Basically I told and showed all the things that had meant something to me when I grew up. Mom walked around with us as well, and even though she’s not that good in english (she understands it well, but can’t speak it), she managed to throw in a small comment here and there anyway.

Since it started to rain when we’d walked around for a bit, we went inside again looking at all of mom’s pretty things (she likes to collect pretty things and decorate her home). Checking out where my room used to be and all that stuff while mom prepared a…. FIKA! :-D We also took the chance to say hello to all of mom’s four cats, including HUGE Ozzy that [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni fell in love with, I think… He’s a Maine Coon… and a BIG one! Currently weighing around 11-12 kilos, and he’s not fully grown yet… Insane!

Then we had FIKA downstairs. And talked. And talked and talked and talked. :-D Both mom and I agreed and told [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni she would be a WONDERFUL doctor one day, since she got her heart right where it should be. Mom should know. She’s 62 and has worked as an assistant nurse ever since she started working.

Alexandra just played with mine and brothers old toys while we were talking that mom has pulled down from the attic. We didn’t even notice how the time flew until it was 9pm or so in the evening, and we had a 2 hour drive to get back to Borås.

At my mothers to see where I grew up! And to be spoiled... )

While driving we continued talking and talking and talking… So the ride back to Borås didn’t feel that long as it usually does. We also made a plan for the next day so I could drive them to the airport. I insisted. It’s only a 30-40 min drive, so why shouldn’t I? And their flight didn’t leave until midday, so it was no problem really.

Dropping [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni and Sarah off at their hotel we then drove home and once we’d gotten Alexandra to sleep in her bed instead of the car, we both collapsed in our bed.

Next morning was good and nice (with a kiddo not to cranky, wohoo!). Once I was ready I went to pick up [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni and Sarah so we’d be at the airport at a good time before their plane left. Once at the airport we had a FIKA, of course. ;-) And talked some more. During the whole weekend I felt quite comfortable talking to [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni friend Sarah, since I’ve learned so much about her from [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni’s entries. And apparently [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni had talked to Sarah a lot about me to, so it went both ways. (It appeared as if it was only good things to! I hope at least…)

As it got closer to them leaving, we hugged a lot. Both me and [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni assured each other that we were very happy about finally getting to meet. And that YES! Apparently I was just what [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni had expected. And [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni? Well… She was just what I had expected. Just a 1000 times more so! :-) Such an awesome woman. Whoever ends up with her as a psychiatric doctor is going to be really fucking lucky! :-D

Once I’d dropped them off, I felt empty and sad. Already missing them. We talked and laughed so much my jaw was a bit sore. :-)

Such amazing women. Just… amazing. It still blows my mind that she’s been here. It really does. All the way from Brooklyn, New York City, USA to little Borås, Sweden. Amazing.

So happy to be able to call you a dear friend, [livejournal.com profile] ruchirahni.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2015-03-09 12:04 am

Kicking my own ass - Life - Interesting vids...

I am doing what I keep telling others not to. I am not posting because I don't feel like anyone would find it interesting.

*head-desk*

WTH? This is MY journal. I should post no matter what. If it is interesting to me or to anyone else. To write down my thoughts does have a tendency to clear them up. I keep returning. I keep poking at this place. Because it's just... home. If you've posted/written/journaled/blogged at the same place for 11 ½ years, it does end up home, wether you like it or not.

I'll just be writing for me sake. Sharing for my sake. And if anyone else happens to like it, than cool. :-)

So on that note... I got rid of my cast this Friday! :-D YAY!!! Six weeks of me jumping around on one leg (with support) is now OVER!!! I can walk on the leg, although I still have to use regular crutches to take some weight off the leg still. It's stiff as all hell! Geezes... I have exercises that I should do every day which are dull but I can feel they are doing a difference. So dull, but good for me. Isn't that always the case with these things? *lol*

At least now I am more mobile and can move around. :-)

My brother with his kids and my mom came over this Saturday, which was AWESOMELY fun! (And they cooked food for us for some reason...) I love my brother to bits, and when a guy like him (6.2 feet tall!) takes a seat IN YOUR LAP!!! Now that's sibling-love to a whole new level! Also, his ass is bony. Someone needs to feed him. X-D

We had a wonderful time though! And Alexandra got to get out and play with her cousins at a playground which was fun by all, while I stayed at home with my bad leg and fixed coffee for the adults to drink when they got back. :-)

Then today, Sunday, we cleaned the apartment. Weekly cleaning. AND I COULD HELP!!! Yes, you worry-wards. I listened to my body and didn't do to much. :-) Promise! It's funny though how happy you can be from managing to clean the bathroom. X-D It's the easiest room to clean in this apartment, so I felt I would be abel to do that to take some load of [livejournal.com profile] peting73. And it worked FINE! :-D So now I can add that to my list of chores until I'm fully recovered. :-)

I am planning on being able to get out of the house on Saturday though. (With crutches!) To say shit has hit the fan... SERIOUSLY! at the vampire-LARP I am in would be an understatement. And not only for my character, but for ALL characters!!! Well, I really Really REALLY wanna go on Saturday! So I am doing my exercises stubbornly every day! And I know there's an elevator where we have our society local, so at least I don't have to hobble up four stories... :-) I have to wonder what our GM's have smoked though... X-D I love all them people, seriously....

To end it, have some pimping of random stuff I've come across online lately. :-)

I found THIS video very VERY interesting! Especially since I wrote my masters thesis on comics. This is about cartoons. In fact, about cartoons that are very very racist. For the simple reason they were made during such an era. It is very interesting and I do really like the way the two guys in the video discuss this. I would have loved to talk to these two guys while writing my thesis to be honest. It could have been interesting. *geeks out*

Old Cartoons Were RACIST! )

And while we're on the subject of cartoons, I've started following this cool girl Laci Green on Twitter. She's a YouTuber of some fame apparently, and is doing a YouTube show for MTV. It's all about sex-positivity, gender-positivity and just... positivity all around. :-) I have yet to see a vid by her I didn't enjoy. Here she takes up gender stereotypes in Disney movies. But not the female stereotypes, interestingly enough. But the MALE stereotypes! I really enjoyed that, I have to say! And it's not a 'not all men'-thing and hurt-men-complain-thing. No, no, no... This is a feminist girl looking at stereotypes in a new way, and I do like that. :-)

How Disney Stereotypes Hurt Men )

And now I'll destroy the swedish reputation a bit... X-D I don't remember who sent this to me, but I am now a fan of the YouTube channel Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time. These guys are NUTS! X-D And, sad to say... very swedish. *laughs ass off* They speak in swedish (mostly) but there's subtitles and they don't speak that much so it's easy to follow if you don't speak swedish. I keep laughing my way through these, SERIOUSLY!!!

Chop Chop Carnage Stew (Alternative Pyttipanna) )

Also, I happen to like Pyttipanna. A lot. ;-D

And it seems like Netflix is coming up with a very intersting TV-show. Especially if you're a Marvel-fan. A new take on Daredevil. Now, I really like the comic-character, but I feel they butchered the character in the movie. This, however... looks very very interesting. Going back to what the comic is REALLY about.

Marvel's Daredevil - Teaser Trailer )

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2015-02-11 01:07 pm

Family filled with bad luck? - Movie! - Books!

So... the 23e of January I broke my leg... A week later, my mom fell over and scratched up her whole face. Going on a check up, she found out that her bad knee? Had a crack in the kneecap. Fuck. No cast needed, but she needs a protective knee pad thingy to make sure her kneecap stays put. And guess what? The week after that my brother... got ran over by a cow (well, a heifer) and twisted his knee... so one of those knee pad thingies for him to, but he only had to use it for about a week or so.

WTH? o.O

And that's not all!

Mom came over last weekend to hang out and help us out a bit. As long as she's taking it easy and moving around slow, her knee is fine, so that's good. Anyway. Guess what happened then? She dropped her phone in the toilette! X-D No joke! We didn't find it there until about an hour after she'd noticed it was gone. And that's just because I needed to use the bathroom.

Geezes. Enough is enough universe! Give us a break!

At this point all there is is to laugh about it all, to be honest.

I watched an amazing movie the other day. Desert Flower. I pretty much broke down. It's about the life of Waris Dirie and her life from being a little girl in the Somali dessert to a model and to a spokeswoman against female genital mutilation. To say I broke down during that movie, despite the fun parts, would be an understatement. It was done to her when she was 3 years old.... Just 3. About the age as Alexandra....

To say Alexandra got plenty cuddles that night would be an understatement.

Desert Flower Trailer... )

Watch it. I think it's an important movie. I've put a hold on the book at the closest library (where I'm supposed to be working if it hadn't been for my broken leg...). It's next to Alexandras daycare, so I'm sure [livejournal.com profile] peting73 will pick it up for me.

[livejournal.com profile] spicehobbit, my best friend, came by said hi and helped me clean a bit as well not to long ago. She dropped off the book Temeraire av Naomi Novik. In english. ;-) So there's that. And I'm reading the book Toddler Taming as well. Because, damn. I have a toddler now. o.O At least Alexandra is a moderately calm toddler. :-)

Now I'm going to hobble with my walking support (looking like this) to go eat and watch some Supernatural and read a bit. Working on a link/pimp post as well. Gonna be a lot of 50 Shades of GreyFail in that. ;-)

Laters!

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2015-02-01 12:40 am

My wonderful family... and my Achilles heel...

If you didn't know it, I am somewhat a silly sod... *shakes head at self* My best friend, [livejournal.com profile] spicehobbit, and my MIL has been here today and helped us clean this place. It was a mess. Mostly because I haven't been able to do anything. And I hate, Hate, HATE feeling this useless!

Anyway. Mom was supposed to come help but... of course she fell over to outside her house. o.O Gladly she didn't break anything, but she got a HUGE black eye which makes it look like she went a round in the ring against a boxer...

Of course I got worried, but she assured me she was fine. My aunt (who just as mom is an assistant nurse) had been there and taken care of her and my brother as well, so once I was reassured she was going to be fine, I was good.

But that meant I had to ask for help from someone else. And even though I've known my best friend for... 25 years this autumn and my MIL for as long as I've known [livejournal.com profile] peting73... It's was still very very hard for me to ask for help. I've been down all day, so has [livejournal.com profile] peting73, which made it even harder. Eventually I did it for his sake. He is not used to taking care of all the household work plus Alexandra plus work like he has to do now. I am just useless currently.

Both of them came over and man... WOW! [livejournal.com profile] peting73 only had to do the floors, the rest... [livejournal.com profile] spicehobbit and my MIL did for us. I am... so grateful right now, I don't even know what to say.

I'm a helper. Not someone that asks for help. And I will admit I am struggling with this.

It's just been a week. One short week. And I'll probably have this cast for six weeks in total. It'll be tough as hell. :-/

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.
kseenaa: (Default)
2014-07-28 10:49 pm

Life moves on while sadness lingers...

Back to work today. Feels weird and good. I have an easy start though. This week I am working at the library closest to where I live. So it takes me about 5-10 mins to get to work, which is quite the difference how it’ll be later on... I wish I could work there all the time. I love the patrons there and the other librarians that work there. It’s an integrated library, meaning it’s both a regular library and a school library at the same time. And since I love working with both things, it would be perfect for me. Not to mention, Alexandra’s new daycare is in the neighboring house...

Nothing to be done about, I suppose. I know shit will hit the fan when I get back to the school library where I usually work. I have this week here (bliss), next week at a library outside of town (I haz the car), and the week after that... time to unpack the library I packed before I went on my summer vacation/holiday. AND plan and start up my anti-bullying project that I have a budget to use for.

Oh yeah. Back to work. With a vengeance. Can you tell?

It’s good that I keep busy though. If I’d been unemployed I would just have gone around thinking about Tashé constantly. I can’t help but wonder if she would still be alive if I’d been unemployed and able to talk to her more? Crazy thinking maybe and it’ll probably drive me crazy to, but I can’t help it.

Mom, my brother and his kids and [livejournal.com profile] spicehobbit came over to visit yesterday. It was good. I needed that, all them hugs and the love. It was nice. We took all the kids and went downtown to the big new playground there and let them lose. It was brilliant. If a bit hot. We have a bit of a heatwave here in Sweden currently, and you can definitely feel it. But the kids had fun, and I had cold drinks with me for everyone.

Then we went to grab a fika at a fika-place close by. While we were there... it started to rain. A lot. So we were quite wet once we got to the car. And after the drive up to our home and the run from the car at the parking lot? We were all soaked! *lol* But I had plenty clothes to hand out to everyone so no one had to walk around wet.

After that little adventure we had dinner and all the cousins played the afternoon away until it was time for them to leave. It was lovely. It really really was.

Week before that I spent 5 days with mom, including my birthday-weekend, so we got home this Wednesday last. She’d arranged a barbecue on my birthday and invited a few friends and neighbors.. and family... *smiles* *shakes head* She’s a bit nuts my mom, and she loves to arrange parties and get-togethers. It was a success though, and I did have a lovely lovely day. Days after the celebration was spent lazing around and also [livejournal.com profile] peting73 doing a mad dash back home and returning because he forgot his pain-meds (STUPID!) and me going out drinking and clubbing with my globetrotting cousin Mariell, who have since left to work at an insanely luxurious hotel at the Maldives again.

Good times were had, and I am trying to keep them in mind to ward off too much of the sadness I feel. It’s there, and it should. But I can’t drown in it. I have a family to take care of and be with after all.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.