Great Minds

Happy Monday! It’s cold in Sweden. Winter has finally hit us (boo!) We had a nice weekend though. I spent Saturday morning giving P a haircut. He a got an electric razor/hair cutting kit for Christmas (not from me!) Anyway, I’ve never given anyone a haircut before, but it actually came out pretty well! OK, it took about 2 hours, but we saved 300 SEK! That is, 300 SEK which I promptly spent in the next part of our story entitled, P and Steph go shopping.

There are tons of sales going on right now, and the great thing is that all the winter stuff is on sale (and it’s still winter!!!) So I picked up a couple of nice sweaters at 50% off, followed by the most beautiful jacket I have ever owned – 40% off. OK, even at 40% I’m not going to admit how much I spent on the jacket (a lot,) but I love it, it’s really warm, and am sure to wear it for many years. Besides, I haven’t bought a new winter jacket in over 3 years, and I did receive some money for Christmas. (Have I justified this expense yet?)

P and I had planned to go to the grocery store after shopping. As we headed back to the parking garage I checked my watch to see if we would be able to stop in at Ikea before they closed. After watching me check my watch, P said, ”You want to go to Ikea?” I had never said a word about going to Ikea, how did he know???

20 minutes later, we were taking the obligatory lap through Ikea and looking for the dark brown wooden hangers that we had come for. I was also keeping and eye open for the mirror department. I had been wanting a full length mirror forever (wouldn’t it be nice to know if my outfit matched before getting to work!?) Anyhow, the next thing I knew, P went up to a salesgirl and asked her where the mirrors were. Again, I never said a word about mirrors, how did he know?! Perhaps we’ve reached a stage in our relationship where words are no longer necessary?

So it’s Monday morning, and still 1½ hours to go before lunch. I had a terrible stomach ache when I woke up this morning. (I don’t usually get stomach aches, or sick for that matter.) Anyway, it hurt so bad that I traded in my morning coffee for tea (this is big, people!) It’s mostly better now, but still hurts a tiny bit. What’s that about? Also, (back at work) I received two phone calls from a co-worker who works at another site. She has a knack for saying things that ruin my day. I’m glad that I usually don’t have to talk with her on a daily basis!

That’s it from my end. P works day shift this week, which is good for two reasons: 1) I actually get to see him in the evenings, and 2) it’s his week to make dinner.

I hope it’s warm where you are!

Wedding fun

Wedding dress shopping was fun. I’m really glad that I was able to do it with my mom, sisters, and maid of honor. Of course there are a few other friends who I would have loved to be there (and who I wish I could have in the wedding) but seeing as this is already a complicated event I decided not to overcomplicate things by involving people who live in more cities than necessary.

Anyway, back to wedding dress shopping. It took about three days for me to find my dress. Actually I tried it on the first day, but didn’t realize that it was the ”one” because the dress was really big on me. (The bridal shops only stock dresses in 8s and 10s, which is very annoying. It’s nearly impossible to be able to try on a 0 or 2 which means you won’t know exactly how the gown will fit until it comes 4 months later!) Anyway, dress shopping is really exhausting. First you choose several dresses that you would like to try on. The sales girl gets them for you and gives you an under slip to try on (which is very heavy and makes the dress poof out.) Next you stand in the dressing room wearing nothing but the under slip (and underpants of course) while the sales girl takes the dress out of the bag. She help you put it on, which takes a while. Then you go out and stand on the stage for a while. When you want to try on a new dress you have to wait for the salesgirl to put the old one bag in its bag before she will take out the new one. After going through this process with several dresses I was very exhausted!

One store I went to was at the mall. The store was great, but the location was terrible! The store had great big glass windows, and was on a corner where a lot of people walk by. I was basically on display for everyone to see. The little girls walked by and ooow and awwwed over me (which was kind of fun.) But then the high school boys walked by and made stupid comments…plus at one point I looked over my shoulder to see my fiancé peeking at me from behind a curtain!

That’s it for now.

Home Sweet Home

I just got back from three weeks of vacation in America. I thought I would be really jet-lagged today, but I’m holding up better than I expected. We left Seattle at about 7pm on Monday, and finally arrive at our apartment around 8:30pm on Tuesday. Anyway I slept through the night and wasn’t too exhausted when my alarm went off this morning. I went to work and told myself that I would go home early if I start to crash. But it’s 2pm and I think I might be able to make it till 5.

We had a great time on vacation. We spent about 2 weeks in Spokane, where we did a lot of wedding planning. We accomplished the following: ordered wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses, bought veil and shoes (including bridesmaid shoes,) bought wedding rings, bought tuxedos for P and both dads, bought vests for all ushers, chose wedding colors, bought all supplies for invitations, save the date, thank you cards, etc. We also confirmed the date with the priest, and P finally asked his friends to be ushers. So things are moving forward! BTW, the official date is now June 23rd (Midsummer!)

New Year’s Eve we headed up to Priest Lake, Idaho, where my brother’s friend has a lake cabin. There was about 10 of us at the cabin including my brother and his wife. We were really up in the mountains, in the middle of no-where Idaho! However, there was a bar open nearby and we decided to head there to ring in the New Year. There was a live band at the bar, which was headed by a Bob Marley look-alike. They played reggae all night (mostly Marley covers.) A good time was had by all, although I was a bit disappointed by the lack of count-down leading up to midnight. I was also disappointed when the band only played Old Langsyne for about 10 seconds before switching back to reggae. I was even more disappointed a couple of hours later when I realized that I had had a few too many drinks…

After Spokane we headed to Seattle where we rented a car and drove both down to Centralia to see P’s relatives, and up to Bellingham where we visited our old university. We also spent a lot of time with my friends in Seattle. Good times! (But the traffic there is horrible!!!)
Happy New Year!