The elections are over…….

Sweden’s political election is over! The blue side won (right wing), although not with full power, and their is total chaos following this not just because there is not a majority but also because people have elected another party who are a bit radical in their beliefs.

The counting of all votes is not really over because of the postal votes and the votes who are coming from abroad. It may take until Thursday before they have counted all the votes. And if the right side is really lucky they might actually get another two mandates and then they will be in majority. Which would be amazing! I like the right side, they have done really good things for Sweden the last four years. Even though there is people who will show something else and worse things have happened the fact is that they have put pressure on people to work, not to stay on benefits, and to take charge of their own lives! And of course that is going to hurt some parts of the population. Anything else would be weird. People on benefits don’t want to hear that they are going to loose their benefits if they do not get up from their bums and make an effort to find a job, any job! Or move to where there are jobs! What is the problem with that? Swedish people must be the most lazy and ungrateful people on the planet at the moment! And that is only one of the things that have changed. Some people do not do well with change, do they? I suppose that is why the socialist have done so badly the last two elections, they have stayed in an old way of politics and haven’t really seen that the world have changed outside their window. Pathetic!

The other thing that you notice when reading comments in the internet newspapers is how many people who seem to change their mind every four years! How do you change political direction every four years? Isn’t that weird as well?

Well enough about politics, I am going to try a new recipe for cupcakes, sticky toffee pudding cupcake……mmmmmmmm.

Talk to you later!

There is going to be some changes coming!

From next week we will be back in the UK again and with this there will also be some changes. One thing that I very foolishly have done is to enter a bet with my sister to loose 8kg until November when we are going on a vacation together! She will probably be very successful and I will not! I have the worst of character ever known to mankind. If I see something to eat it goes down. And it has become worse over the years. First I blamed everything on the pregnancies (as every woman does I think), you know breastfeeding and that, but after the two I had it sort of did not stop! And it has just become worse these last 5 years. I am now at my heaviest ever in my life. I weigh about 75 kg and that would be about 15 kg too much for me.

Now some people would probably say that it does not seem like a problem, there are people who are much heavier, have real problems with there weight and so on. And I feel for them, weight problems are real, dangerous and really exhausting problems. And for some very hard and psychological. But do you know what? It really does not matter to me because it does not take my problem away. To know that there are other people with the same problem like me does not make it easier for me, it’s just sad!

From next week there will be some changes to the diet and my exercise regime. I have 3 months (about) to get into better shape and show my sister that I can make a change to the better and I will do my very best. I have been training a lot when I was younger and I think I can still do it, it will just take the willpower of I do not know what to get started. I will probably hate it and I will be reluctant to do it on a daily basis because I know it will be very hard and boring. (No more nice Sunday lunches at the pub with a nice glass of wine.) But the thing that makes it easier is that if I do not make a change very soon it will be too late for me. I have turned forty and it feels like this is a breakpoint in my life where I will determine if I am to be heavier for the rest of my life or not. And I do not want to end up like some people I know who have struggled with there weight all their adult life.

I will tell you more as this progresses and I will also tell you how much I have worked out and what I have been eating to reach my goal. I hope to loose 6 kg, at a minimum, in these 3 months. That’s 0,5 kg per week which is reachable and on the lower side.

Talk to you soon again!

//Anna

A good day starts with a dip in the sea

This morning was just amazing! The view from my bedroom was something else. It is hard to explain but everything was very calm, no wind in the trees, not a curl on the water and the sun was just getting warm and nice. These days are easy to count in one summer but today was one of them. We have been bathing and laying in the sun all day long, the girls and I. I have been knitting and they have been chasing fish and building a sandcastle on the beach. It has been just lovely. Here is a picture of me sitting on the stairs down to the jetty. And yes it is just as amazing as it looks……..it has been the most wonderful day today!

I hope for more of these days but you’ll never know with the weather in Sweden.

Later on we ended up fishing until late and the girls have just gone to bed even though it is long after their bedtime.

I am doing my knitting and I have taken a picture of it. I need to keep on knitting if I am going to be finishing this before we leave. It is coming on nicely but I have done only 2/5 of it so far. I will show you more later.

Good Night from me and see you later

//Anna

The Swedish elections is coming closer

On the 19th of September Sweden is going to vote for which political party is going to rule the next 4 years. It is really nerve-racking, specially for us who live abroad at this time. We are planning to return home during the next year but I must say it all depends on who wins this election!

There are two side and then some smaller parties in between, up and down. The coalitions today is known as “dom Rödgröna” (the Red and Green) they represent the ones towards the left, and then there is “Alliansen” (the Alliance) who are leaning right.

The last thing I read about was that they (the left side) had a proposition to have a butler service in the underground! You should be able to leave your laundry, have your groceries done for you to just pick up when coming home and so on. This is a suggestion from a party who thinks cleaning ladies are not suppose to be working in other peoples homes!

It is not nice to be a maid. (But a butler is apparently ok to be and use for service). Because being a maid/cleaning lady is degrading and really not something anyone should have to be. Well do you know what, I have been cleaning hotel rooms when I was younger and I can tell you that is not something nice. Wiping up pee around the toilet seat, changing sheets, and the best thing must be wiping up vomit on Sunday morning after the big company party! That is a job that I think would be considered degrading if anything. Not cleaning in a private home for a nice family! But they do the same things, don’t they (apart from the vomit on the Sunday I hope).

But the worst thing the Social party is doing for Sweden when talking about this job (the maid thing) as something degrading and not nice is what kind of message they are sending to a very young and impressionable generation. If one kind of job is not good enough for our elected people, why should we do it?

What kind of job is next?

It will be very exciting to see what they are going to talk about next and who is winning. What else is going to be read about in the newspapers tomorrow?

See you//Anna

Swom, Super Word of Mouth

I have become a member of Swom. It stands for Super Word of Mouth. It is a social business connections site and it is just the right thing to work with when on doing business on the internet like I am.

It gives you the opportunity to connect with others who seek the business that you can offer or who have a business to offer you. There are a lot of people connected and when going for a Gold membership you can use your income from the site to advertise to other web pages. It does not cost anything to become a member but to really be able to use in your advantage you need to upgrade to Gold and you will not get anything paid out unless you do either.

Check this website out http://swom.com  and do not hesitate to become a free member to learn all about the system. Once you are there you will not want NOT to become a Gold member, trust me. You need to be recommended by someone to get in but that is sort of what the whole website is about, to build up your members and via the “word of mouth” build the website to become an even greater place to find others.

Check it out and do check my profile on this website. This is really fun to work with.

//Anna

Fun day so far

We have bats in our garden at night and the girls are really fascinated by them. So much that we decided to build a bat house for them and see if we can attract some more. I think we have 2-3 of them, it is really hard to know because I can see more than one but they are quick and knowing exactly how many there are is impossible. Hopefully we will now know that we at least have more than one if we can see them in the house during the day.

And here is a picture of the bat house up in the tree. It was really easy to build and I found the instructions on the internet.

 

The day is turning out to be a sunny one, a little windy but I think some bathing is going to be done in the afternoon. First we are going to have lunch and today is spaghetti Bolognese.

Below is one of yesterdays view from the jetty. Did some knitting down there and this is alright to overlook I think. I will soon post a picture of my summer project.

See you!

//Anna

Another not so nice day….

This is really turning into the usual Swedish summer! About 20-22 degrees, cloudy and a slight wind. It is such a difference from last summer when we had sun almost 4 weeks in a row. That was amazing! I only changed into clothes in the evening when the temperature dropped otherwise I was in my bikini all day long! Not that I look good in a bikini anymore but on the other hand there is no one else here on the island so it really does not matter.

But we have had some fun days. Yesterday we did a day that the girls decided everything we should do. We started out with our own Wild Kids adventure – walking around the island with a homemade map and some assignments to do along the way. Then we had some lunch and directly after that we took the boat into the larger island behind ours were we had a long walk and looked at some sheep in a field (they do not need to much when they are really bored) after that they had an ice cream and mommy finally had a nice latte from the café, after almost three weeks away from civilisation that coffee was godsend! Later we had a trampoline contest and then we did some bathing in the sea. I can tell you the girls were really tired in the evening that night.

I am still trying to get pictures inserted into my blog but I can’t get it to work. I am trying everything and it is really just a pain to keep trying. What is wrong with the technology when you can’t use it? Try everything………I am going to do another try I will just have a cup of coffee first to keep me going …..

Talk to you soon and hopefully you will see some nice rainy pictures as well.

//Anna

It is a rainy day

Today is the 5th day that we are in the summer house and I can tell you it is raining like crazy! It is a typical summer rain, large drops and it just goes on and on. And it looks like it is a grey wall outside the window. And as far as I can see over the sea there is just shades of grey. The best part must be that I will soon go into the boat and pick up my husband who comes with the ferry from town this evening! I am really looking forward to that……..

The weather wasn’t to good yesterday either and the girls have been watching some TV these two days and since they are used to being able to pause and replay the shows on the Sky box they are a little bit frustrated when they cannot do the same thing here. We have two channels and they only show children’s programs on special times, not all around the clock like they do in the UK.

During this weather there is not much else to do than play games, do my knitting project and work with my Agel business. And cook some nice food for all of us. There is also some wine in front of the fire in the evening…..

But I have much to be thankful for as well this season. I have running water inside the house so I do not need to go down to the jetty and do my dishes there, I can also wash my clothes in a machine instead of by hand. And we thought a long time about what kind of machine to buy, just a washer or a washer/dryer. We found a second hand one for a price we thought was ok and it just happened to be a washer/dryer. I can tell you I am grateful for that now because we need all the help we can get with the drying now!

 

Talk to you soon and hopefully with some more sunny pictures to go with it!

//Anna

Summer holiday

Finally the summer holiday is starting!

We are going back to Sweden for 6 weeks and it is just going to be great. Hopefully the weather is going to be really good and I will be in a bikini for the whole time. I will have my knitting project with me and I hope I am going to finish it also. It is a lace shawl and it is the first time I am doing a big project like this so I am a bit nervous actually.

The girls will love just running around and climb trees and go swimming or just do nothing. That is what defines the summer holiday I think, wake up when you want to, have breakfast after a nice swim and then you can just lie down until you get hungry again.

I will write you again and try and get some pictures in the blog as well.

 

See you soon!

//Anna

My new website Gelfreedom from Agel

I have been a member in the Agel team for some time now but I have just started up with this webpage from GelFreedom. This website is more international than the one I used to advertise. I think this one is so much better and it generates some great emails for those interested. I can advertise this page and I will get my leads in my inbox. Then there is the follow up of course but I think this page is amazing when it come to what information the prospect is getting from the first moment they enter the site!

I am going to go with this Gelfreedom site and I will tell you a little later how it works out for me. I intend to build myself a nice little business with Agel and I know this is the tool I need to start building my fortune!

Talk to you later.

If you are really interested to know more about Agel and their business opportunity  - click here www.annacarlson.gelfreedom.com

//Anna

Soon to be flying again

I must tell you about something that we have bought for our girls. It is like a Nintendo but for smaller children, it’s called the Leapster 2 from LeapFrog and I can tell you it is amazing! Since we are travelling a lot we found that this is just the best thing to bring whenever we are flying or going by car or train. They love the different games we have bought (and we only bought 3 of them and have actually not bought any more since) when we got the consoles and I think it is just as amusing for them as it is educational.

Believe me when I say that I am not the first one to get gadgets for my children, I do believe in the old fashioned way of play but ….we do not live in the old fashioned world anymore do we? We fly, we drive cars and we go by train and frankly it is not that easy to bring the traditional games because there aren’t the space for it. Take Ryan air (which we fly frequently with) they still have the foldable table but they do not have a pocket in front of you anymore, where to put the puzzle then?

Anyway this Leapster 2 has given my girls a lot of fun for hours especially when we have been flying. We bought Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go and Cinderella for them and they have been playing them over and over. And since our children were only 2,5 and 4 when we bought them we thought they were a little bit to small for these, and I must say they were! It took some time before they could actually play them on there own but gee.. how fast they learn! It did not take long before they knew everything about these games.

I think they will be ok with these for another two or three years and then they would probably want something like a Nintendo instead but so far these are outstanding. The thing about the Leapster is that it is really made for younger children, it is sturdy in design, easy to hold with little hands, the pen is attached the consol with a string and there is a display that is made for little hands to handle. The buttons on the console is a little bit larger and easier to manage. You can use it with batteries which are changeable, standard AA batteries, which is really good if you are on a long flight or you can use it with a charger directly to the consol.

I can only say that I like these a lot and I just wanted to write about them because we are soon to be flying to Sweden for the summer and I know that my girls will love to use them both on the flight and on those rainy days in the summer house.

If you like what I have written take a look in me Amazon shop further down on this blog and see what LeapFrog can offer you!

Have a nice day!

//Anna

Football final

Right now we have started to look at the football final between the Netherlands and Spain. Since none of these countries have won the World Cup before it might actually be an interesting game.

Anyway…..

The chickenpox is fading away …finally. I cannot tell you how it is to be inside in 25-28 degrees and not being able to do anything at all. Just sit and be of assistants when they need me to be.

I have a friend who told me about a great site the other day and I think I need to tell you about it as well.

It is called Repair pal and you can find it at http://repairpal.com. If you go to this website you can get any information you would need to repair or just get information about what could be wrong with your car. It might just be that you hear a weird sound at the moment and are worried about what it might be. We all hate that don’t we? Ask a question to Repair Pal and they will answer you. This website is independent from any shop or car make, it is all done by a community of enthusiast and entrepreneurs who got tired of getting estimates and tedious process of repairing their vehicles.

If you have for example and Toyota Camry from -02 you could go to this website http://repairpal.com/toyota-camry-2002 to have a look at what might happen to you Camry. There are people talking about what have happened to their Camrys and what you could expect from it in case of any faults, if there have been any recalls from Toyota and so on.

If you then have a problem with your Camry you can just click yourself to a nice shop who will fix your Toyota for you, near to where you live,  http://repairpal.com/chicago-auto-repair

Repair Pal is really everything you might need if you own a car and you do not want to just go back to your dealer and take his/her word for everything!

Try Repair Pal next time! I know I will.

And know they have managed not to do any goals in 45 minutes and I am going to get myself another glass of wine!

See you soon.

//Anna

Always something going on…

Yes, we have chickenpox! And one with a sore throat and fever. As I have told you before there is always something going on in this house!

Since the little one is contagious for another 5 days we have been sitting indoors for 2 days now! They are ill so it is not like they are running around but they are very demanding when they are laying in one corner each of the sofa and looking at SpongeBob all day long.

I do not have to much to write about today, I am exhausted and I need to sleep as well. I am just going to watch the latest episode of Private Practice before I go to bed!

 

Write soon again!

//Anna

An interesting morning today

So far we have had a very interesting morning. We have our first day home today the little one and I. We had just left the oldest at primary school and was going to the store to pick some groceries up and just before we came there my mobile phone rang. I usually talk in the car but via the hands free through the car, really easy and safe when driving. Well this time it did not connect to the car via Bluetooth for some reason so I answered on the handset instead, talked for maybe 4 min and was just hanging up when I heard sirens behind me! Great, the police! That is so typical, I always use the hands free and this one time the police is sitting in a car beside me when I am slowing down at a traffic light. I just thought that one time would probably be ok, but NOO…….

Well it wasn’t too bad. Not good of course but this is only the second time in my life that I have been pulled over by the police so I suppose it is not that bad. Of course I will never talk on my phone again without the hands free!

Now it is much later and we are having pizza night. Not too good for my diet but one night a week will be ok for me. Going to work out tomorrow.

Hope you all have a nice weekend!

 

//Anna

Riding

I have been riding a lesson today and it was just great! The horse I ride is just getting better and better and I am too I hope. At least it feels like I am getting somewhere with this. I try to ride 3-4 morning a week, the days when my youngest daughter is in nursery. But it has been so hot the last couple of days that I could just not do it. I thought about going out on Monday evening but when I drove home after the girls pony club it was 33 degrees outside and I could not do it. I don’t think it cooled down until eight o’clock or something. Before I am back again after riding it would be very late. And there is a day tomorrow also…..

It has actually been a good night in the house, I did wake up very early but only because I forgot to roll down the drape when I went to bed. No one has been sleeping in my bed but myself! Yippee……

And my youngest daughter is 3,5 years now and I am very proud of her at the moment because she is now dry all through the night and almost every day as well. She sometimes have an accident but it is often because she is playing or we do something and she forgets that she needs to go. But I think she is doing so well. When she was only 18 month old she did not want to use diapers during the day anymore, probably because her big sister took of her night nappies and when she saw that she could not be bothered about day nappies. It was hard work in the beginning I can tell you. I think I had potties all over the house, in almost every room. After a while I started to put the potties closer and closer to the bathrooms. Not that she did not go to the toilet but she could not reach the bathroom in time. Anyway now both of them are really good with the toilet and I can tell you it just makes things so much easier.

Going to pick up my oldest from primary in a bit, I hope you all have a nice day! Talk to you soon!

//Anna

Monday=crazy day

Mondays are officially the crazy day of the week in our household. It is not only the first day of the week which I always feel is difficult but it is also the day when we have everything going on in the afternoon after school.

Picking up at 3.15, going to ballet at 3.30-4.30, directly after that we have pony riding from 5-5.30 pm and then going home and making dinner. During all this there is of course some snacking involved so everyone stays happy during the afternoon, that includes me as well.

I do not mind my children doing this but sometimes it feels ridiculous when I am driving them around to these things. They are just 3 and 5 years of age so I sometimes wonder what it will be like in 5-10 years of time? Hopefully they will have settled with one or to things to do, maybe one sport and one instrument. Any kind of music is a nice and it does give some perspective to just doing sports as if different sports is the only thing that counts. I learned the flute myself and I did get to do trips with the orchestra that I played in which was really nice. We went to Italy, Venice and Milan, and the other longer trip we did was to Harrogate where there was a youth festival of some sort. Besides that we did different shows on local theatres and stages and played when there was something going on in that little town where I grew up. And we did some marching….in really ridiculous costumes in a material that would probably be banned today because it might self combust or something!

Now I am sitting here and watching TV and having a nice cup of coffee. Tomorrow I am sure something funny will happen or knowing my family something will probably happen during the night…..

See you tomorrow

//Anna 

Hottest day ever!

Yesterday was the hottest day so far this season. One should not complain but it was almost unbearable. And then the football……well I suppose we will all survive it.

After trying to get the kids in bed for a couple of hours, it was like a bake oven upstairs, there was just to make sure the little one did not stay in my bed for too long. Of course I went up probably two minutes too late and yes…….pee all over my side of the bed!

After cleaning up there was not much else but to go to bed myself and I can tell you it was still boiling hot. I can just imagine how tired the girls will be tomorrow because they could not sleep. I do not think they fell asleep until 10.30pm and being just 3 and 5 years of age it will be even worse for them tonight.

About 1.30am I woke up again when the little one climbed into my bed. After 20 minutes of not being able to lie still she suddenly turned around and banged her head into my nose! Sounded like it broke, it didn't of course but I could suddenly feel it running from blood. I just love the night time in our house, it is so full of surprises.

I think the best part is that the only one being awake was me, no one heard my scream, the assailant was still asleep, actually never woke up and there was not a twitch from the body on the other side of the bed either……

 

I have also decided that I will start a diet, weight watches actually, I tried it a couple of years back after my first child and I think it worked very well for me.

I will write you soon again, maybe some more interesting stuff from yet another night in our household.

See you later

Anna

I cannot be the first to write

about their children.

I am not only going to write about my children I am actually going to write about other things that is going on in my life due to the fact that I am a mother of two small children. How about the fact that I do not think I have had one night sleeping all through since 2005! That is when my first daughter was born. Do not get me wrong I love my children but when you think about it ....how many of you out there (who are not mothers and I do not include the fathers, I am sorry, but you seem to have a way of not waking up even though the children are screaming there heads off) can honestly say that you have not had one night in 5 years when you did not wake up at least one time? Please let me know!

The fact that I am constantly struggling with my weight. I read an internet article just a couple of days ago and it said that lack of sleep increases women's abdominal fat. So it is a fact then! I am fatter than I used to be because I lack sleep.

Maybe I should go to bed now then and not sit up and write a blog about how little I sleep…..

I will write again soon and probably talk about what I will be doing this summer holiday, it is coming up soon…..

Good night!