I think I just saw my husband

He rushed in through the front door. Disappeared upstairs and rumbled through the wardrobe. A quick stop in the play room constructing a LEGO ambulance for Filip. A quick good bye and out of the door he was. I remember that he smelled like french union soup.

He had a 7am meeting in Radford,Va tomorrow and evidently a launch party tonight. I wonder which made him rush the most.

A day in bullets

• Both kids had night mares so I missed out on a good nights sleep
• Went to the gym for my workout, left the kids in the day care
• Had to leave my class early to pick up the kids from day care since 1)Sixten had been throwing chairs 2)Filip had been in a fight with a girl
• Grocery shopping with two grumpy kids and an even grumpier mother, not a good combination I can tell you
• Watched Allsang pa Skansen and sighed over the oh so cute Martin Rolinski
• Had a healthy snack while the kids had both fruit and Oreos chocolate and mint, not fair
• Target, the IKEA substitute, always has something to offer. This time it was work out clothes for me, medicine for S and some underwear for the kids
• Dinner
• Filip learned how to whistle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Waiting for So you think you can dance to start, the crumble pie to be ready and the kids in bed

A piece of summer

Bought rhubarbs in the store the other week. Haven't bought rhubarbs in many years since our neighbors back home happily shared their harvest. Filip asked for rhubarb fool and I had my mind on a crumble pie. Found a box of Marsa'n custard in the cabinet which will complete the dessert.

Going west

We are busy planning the trips for the autumn. First a few days in Las Vegas just me and Henrik. Vegas is different, very different and so much. We can't decide if we want to stay in Venice, Paris, New York, Egypt, a castle och just a plain 5000+ room hotel. I have bought two guide books that should help us figure out what we should do on our trip. High tea at the Four seasons, Cirque du soleil, the Bellagio fountains is a must.
The big question now is whether we should stay for two or three nights.

Returning back home from Vegas we are planning a trip to Smokey Mountains, Tennessee. A log cabin with a great mountain view makes a nice contrast to the neon lights in Vegas

A mini break

On Saturday morning we headed south for Charlotte. Stopped for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel just outside Lexington. Cracker Barrel is one of those many large chains that really confuses me. Looking at the entrance it appears to be an old building with old worn farming equipment on the walls and a large wrap around porch with rocking chairs. It all screams genuineness. That feeling lingers until we see the next Cracker Barrel with exactly the same decor and I bet even the same waitresses.

The waitresses are all in their 40's and 50' and butter you up with sugars, honey and darlings. The food is good, the breakfast menu is huge and we had a hard time making up our mind. We ended up with scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, pancakes, french toast, hash brown.

We continued our trip and by noon we parked the car outside Carowinds. A huge amusement and water park lay before us. Started in the kids area where Nick Jr/Nickelodeon were the big sponsor. I was actually a bit disappointed with this part of the park, the rids were a bit so and so. A bit worn down and don't get me started on the people working in the park. So slow it drove us nuts. We now that we are in safety-world but there are some limits. To get the kids on a 'small airplanes that lift 8ft off the ground' we stood in line forever even though there was no queue. The operator named Buddy took his time measuring each child at the gate and then slowly discussing with the annoyed parents why he didn't let their 54'' daughter on a max 48'' ride. Then when all kids weer seated he took a stroll, not a brisk walk, around checking the belts before finally starting the thrilling 90sec ride. Then he had to stroll back around unlocking each and every child not letting the parents help.

We finally managed to get through the kids zone and get something to eat. Instead of looking at all the crazy roller coasters that we couldn't go on we walked to the water park. The kids got new energy and had a great time splashing, soaking and sliding. The sun came out and we had a great time.

Left Carowinds at 8pm and drove to the hotel. The kids ate pizza in bed and watched a little telly.

Rise and shine.

Wonderful breakfast at the hotel, very international. Filip couldn't wait to go to the hotel pool, he had been talking about that since we left home. We hadn't planned anything for the day just knowing that we didn't want to go straight home. All being a bit tired too we didn't want to go a an big exploration trip down town.

Like a miracle we came to Concorde Mills, the shopping heaven. Exit 49 makes many men nervous about the family's future financial situation. Can proudly say I didn't buy a thing. Just walking around alone, the kids and Henrik stayed at the Nascar Speedpark, was a treat for me. I looked at gorgeous knitted Hilfiger sweaters realizing that it will be 3 moths before I would need that.

We came home just before 5pm and it was good to be home.

A weekend in Charlotte

Arrived back home to night after a mini break in Charlotte. Right now we are all very tired and looking forward to spend the night in our own comfy beds. Nothing wrong abouth Hilton no, it's just that sharing a room the whole family can be a bit noisy. Especially around bedtime and waking up time and there between too.

Back in the morning.

As times goes by

A year ago we set foot in Greensboro for our pre visit. A hectic schedule of house hunting and shopping lay ahead of us.

The sky just cleared up after a massive thunder storm and I rememberd that this was exaclty the same weather we had on our first night of our pre visit.

Autumn already?

It is cold today, only 70F when I left the gym earlier today. It had been raining and the air felt breathable again. If I closed my eyes I could pretend we were back in Sweden again. Well that was until a stranger, a lady coming out from the gym, stopped by my side and said to the kids: Aren't y'all the cutes boys I have ever laid my eyes on. You make sure you make your mama proud.
She turned to me: Have a blessed day honey.

I like friendly people.

More pics from the zoo

A day at the zoo

Just a 40 minutes drive from us you find North Carolina Zoo. We visited the zoo for the first time in October I believe and at that time it was a fairly cool day with not much people around. Today we had a temperature of 81F with a realfeel of 99F, high humidity I can assure you. Since the zoo is so vast and divided into different regions you can't really tell how crowded it is.

We parked the car in the North America region and took a stroll through the swamps with alligators, toads, turtles and birds. We saw a very lazy polar bear, he was rescued from a circus in Mexico some years ago. Hopped on the transfer bus that took us to the centre of the park. We indulged in a healthy all American lunch: pizza slices, fries, chili hotdog with coleslaw and cheeseburger accompanied by Coke.

The kids enjoyed a few turns on the merry-go-round and we took the opportunity the rest our legs for a while.

Time for a trip to Africa. We saw gorillas, baboons and chimpanzees, sleeping lions, beautiful giraffes accompanied by zebras. In april it was the grand opening for the Watani Grassland Reserve, an enormous area for the elephants, rhinoceroses and antelopes. We were lucky and arrived just in time food the feeding of the elephants. That made the day!

I will post a video clip of that some other time.

We walked back to the food plaza where we had a well deserved ice cream. The boys had another go att the carousel and we summed up what had been a great day. Took the bus back to the car park and drove home.

Reinholds all over the world

Congratulations on your big day

My Reinhold aka Filip will be served strawberry cake after our midday nap. He then took the oppurtunity to decide what to eat tonight, Red Robin where else. In between the cake and the restaurant we will squeeze in a few hours of sun and pool. Need our dose of vitamine D since we spent the morning at the movies, Flushed away this time.

Cooling down

Another fun busy weekend. First the usual Friday night by the pool drinking wine, watching the sun set and dragging unwilling kids out of the poole when it is time to leave.

Out of nowhere the LEGO Police headquaters appeared by the front door on Saturday morning. Well not really out of nowhere. Filip had been on the phone to grandparents in Sweden begging them for money so he could expand his LEGO city. Henrik managed to track one set down in Danville, VA. After a few calls he arranged with Jan-Anders who works there but lives here to buy it for us. Most of Saturday was spent building police cars and prison cells.

I the evening we met up with the above mentioned J-A and his family to visit the annual Bog Gardens Bayou Bash. The ad promised a bamboo torch uplit park, cajun music, food, creepy crawlies and fire and entertainment. Well, there were torches really nice ones. The music was not very cajun more like ' hey everybody can play, can't they'. The food consisted of hot dogs and funnel cake. We saw quite a few ducks but I wouldn't call them creepy. We had a nice walk through the park though and the kids had a great time catching fireflys.

Rise and shine early Sunday morning to pack the car. We had planned a day in the mountains with a swedish family staying here only for three months. The destination for today were Hanging Rock state park. A 70 minutes drive took us up to the mountains and we entered the visitor centre. Four small children and 80F(27C) made us choose the shorter walk to Hidden falls and Window falls instead of the walk up to the actual Hanging rock.

It was a nice walk through the forest and when we could cool down in the waterfall it felt really good. We ate our picnic under a huge cliff and the kids were looking for traces from bears and indians. The walk back was warm humid long and took forever. The revard was waiting for us though, the lake with the beach.

We spent many nice hours by the lake. Filip loved swimming and Sixten enjoyed the enourmous sandbox and the fact that he could run around not risking falling into the pool. Of course the beach was guarded by lifeguards in their tower and red swimgear, Baywatch sure put its mark on history. I don't think the sign Badning sker pa egen risk exist in US. It is either extremely forbidden or extremely guardes and safety regulated.

Came home in time for dinner and it was an unanimous decision to go out for dinner. We topped the weekend off with ice cream at Ben&Jerrys. Cooling down once again.

Bee the best you can

Yesterday I took the kids to the movies. Again. During the summer you can go and see kids movies for only $1 including a soft drink and a box of popcorn. This week they showed Bee movie, next week we will go and see Flushed away.
Next Friday MammaMia the movie premieres and I so want to go and see it. Unfortunately it looks like all the swedes have left for Sweden by then. Will be up to me to defend the swedish colours along with Bjorn and Benny.

Today Filip had his last tennis lesson for the summer. He has been doing great and once he learns to control those long legs and wiggly arms he will do even better. He enjoyed it very much so I guess we are now three out of four tennis freaks in the family.

Plans for the afternoon: Cheesecakes by Alex.

Grattis Johan!

En stor tallrik spagetti och kottfarssas till dig fran oss.

WALL-E

New computer in the house so I am now prick- and ringless. Will dig out my best english and write a jolly good posting.

Muggy weather for a week now and it looks like it will stay like that for another week. Humid air from the south making its way up north only to collide with the cooler air causing lots of thunderstorms and heavy rain every evening.

Yesterday we all went to the movies to see WALL-E. A Disney Pixar movie with a serious message, that must be something. The plot is about the environmental destruction on earth causing the humans to take off into space leaving clean-up robots behind. Sixten was bored to death and wanted to leave after the prewievs, Filip enjoyed it a lot and Henrik well you kind of know that he will like anything as long as it is on a big screen.

Afterwards we went for dinner at Applebees and coffee at Starbucks. Can it get anymore American than that?

4th of July

Vi åkte efter frukosten in till down town för att titta på Fourth of July Parade och se vad USA hade att erbjuda på denna stora dag. Paraden var en stor besvikelse. Inga fina dekorerade vagnar utan mest vanliga bilar eller motorcyklar. Eftersom Greensboro firar 200 år så trodde jag att det skulle vara betydligt festligare.

Henrik nosade upp Natty Greens Beer Garden och där kunde vi svalka oss i skuggan. Down town har verkligen fräschats upp under de senaste åren och de gör mycket för att locka in folket med fler restauranger, butiker och parker.

På kvällen var vi bjudna till Familjen Hansson på bbq. Jättegod mat och trevligt sällskap! Tyvärr så missade vi det stora fyrverkeriet i High point men vi fick oss en liten road trip i alla fall.

Filip och Sixten kom inte i säng förrän vid midnatt så det blir nog familjesiesta efter lunch idag.

Mina cabana boys

I onsdags kväll hade vi pool- och pizzakväll. Dominosbilen kom och lämnade maten och vi njöt i kvällssolen.

Se sån stil han har

Utmaning

Jag fick en utmaning frân Lillie Happiness

1. Beskriv reglerna
2. Svara på alla frågorna
3. Välj ut 6 personer som du vill ska svara och utmana dem i deras bloggar.
4. Be dem läsa din blogg.
5. Låt personen som utmanade dig veta när du svarat på utmaningen.


Fem saker som finns på din Att-göra-lista idag?
1. Packa upp och valsa runt med min nya dammsugare
2. Torka Sixtens snoriga näsa och truga i honom allergimedicin
3. Skicka paket till Sverige
4. Sola
5. Trippa runt i mina Louboutins och sippa på en Dry martini


Vad gjorde du för 10 år sedan?
1998 bodde jag och H i Göteborg. Jag pendlade till jobbet i Trollhättan. Levde livets glada dagar som ung, snygg och oberoende


Ställen du bott på?
Halmstad, Göteborg, Lerum, Leamington Spa

Fem saker du skulle göra om du var biljonär?
1. Köpa en fräsig liten 2-sitsig bil som är helt olämplig för småbarn.
2. Lösa alla lån för oss och andra snälla människor i min närhet
3. Anställa en PT, massör, leksaksupplockare och en som svarar på alla Vafför-frågor från Sixten
4. Köpa en häst
5. Donera pengar till några goda ändamål


Utmaningen går nu vidare till
Mia
Familjen Hansson
BrasseLinda
Dina KL
Malin i Toronto
Amelias café