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-