I got the Job!!!

I finally get to work with something other than the boring, mindless task that I’ve been doing for the past 3 years. The good news came on Friday that I would be getting the job I recently applied for. There’re no pay differences worth mentioning, but the important thing is that I will get to use my brain (at least for a while).

I’m extremely relieved to be moving on. Switching groups, making new acquaintances, and learning new things. I still haven’t found out all of the details about the new job, and I still need a couple of weeks to train my replacement. So I’m actually looking forward to Monday (wow, that doesn’t happen often).

I also found out today that the Drum Corps will be sponsoring our trip Belgium. A couple of us (instructors) will be driving down one weekend in march for some competitions, and then flying back down again the following weekend for some clinics. Apparently the organization wants to pick up most of the bill.

Probably the most exciting news of the weekend though, is that we got new handles for all our kitchen cupboards and drawers. Whoopee! We recently talked the landlord into replacing our old nasty cupboard doors. They put in some nice new white doors and then put some nasty brown wooden handles on them. It was just too hideous to endure so we purchased some nice stainless steel handles and put them in yesterday. Looking good!
~Thaddeus
Read more!

Life In Sweden - Going on 6 years now ! !

Dear All,

We figure that people who read this blog are most likely people we know from the States. So we thought we'd start out by sharing a little of what we've been up to and what's going on.
Thaddeus and I are currently working full time. It's a busy busy time in our lives, but definitely one of the best. Our two girls are growing like mad. They're smart, beautiful, a little crazy and just perfect.

Living in Sweden has been a great experience for us. The biggest reason we moved here was out of curiosity. I mean, I am 100% Swedish, but since I moved to the states when I was only eight, I really had no clue what it was like to live here. I've never really felt like I fit in, not in Idaho anyway. Then there were a bunch of other conveniences like social medicine and the fact that my immigration STILL wasn't done when we wanted to get married. So we thought, why not, this is our chance to go see another part of the world, while we're still young. From there it went pretty fast. We arrived with only suit cases, and I was 5 months pregnant :) I got here 3 months before Thad.......Smart, really smart, and mature. But what do you do, we're spontaneous people, wouldn't have it any other way.

It's been a roller coaster since we got here. It's not as easy to find a job in Sweden as it is in the States, trust me. And it's even harder to find a job when you're an immigrant in Sweden, or if you're pregnant :) Anyway, Thaddeus was unemployed for a little over a year. During this time he went to "SFI" which is "Swedish for immigrants" Amazing stuff they've got here. Immigrants can go to school to learn Swedish....FOR FREE! (This explains why Thaddeus is so freakishly good at Swedish. I have to ask him how to spell stuff and how the grammar works, it's embarassing) During this time I was home taking care of Elsa. Need I say, we were poor.

Then we both got jobs at just about the same time, and suddenly things got a little easier. Then along came Kajsa, another one of those "Should we? wouldn't it be fun to have a baby" kids. Like I said, we're spontaneous. Anyway, the past 5 years have just cruised by. Feels like we can hardly keep up. Thaddeus and I will be celebrating out sixth anniversary in May, Amazing! Even more amazing, I still love the guy, he's great.

Well, I'm not sure if there's anything else exciting to tell. Our everyday life is just work and play, work and play. We live in Borås. Which is the fifth largest city in Sweden (don't quote me on that) It's an hour's drive east of Gothenburg. Thaddeus and I have jobs quite close to home and the girls go to day care (across the street) about three days a week. We live next door to the zoo and an outdoor swimming pool. We don't have that many chances to hit the pool since we live in the "rain capital" of Sweden, and since swim weather is only from June (if we're lucky) to August. It seriously rains way too much! I think it rains at least 5 out of 7 days a week, and I'm pretty sure I'm not exaggerating.

Well, I'm impressed if you've made it this far :)
-Michaela- Read more!

Hello? Can anyone see this?

Just wanna check if this thing really works. Gotta run to work now, so I'll have to work some more on this thing when I have some time off....like saturday maybe ;) -Michaela

Read more!