More Witherspoons in Sweden?

Technically I guess the answer is no, since Rachel (my sister) is a "Long" and no longer a Witherspoon, but blood is blood and I can't believe the Swedish government allowed two of us in their country at the same time!

Rachel, Emily and Ethan were just here for about a 1.5 weeks and we had a wonderful time exploring Stockholm and the archipelago. One of our trips was to Vaxholm where we caught a ferry-boat to the island of Grenda. Once on the island we used a portable grille to cook up a picnic. The weather was a little windy right off the water, so that was a bit of a challenge, but once we walked inland a few hundred meters, the weather was really nice.

Rachel and the gang also explored the Vasa Museum (see earlier post on the Vasa), learned the Stockholm transportation system (see also post on buses are for losers) and ate the local food (fish eggs are fish eggs even if you call them caviar).

They also learned how to sleep in Sweden when the sun is out for almost 20 hours per day!

Here are a few pictures from their trip!

PS - the picture you see with the crowd of people is a Swedish Midsummer celebration. They are raising the "May Pole" - yes the celebration takes place in June, but its a May Pole. Go figure.

At any rate, it is too bad we don't have sound on these pictures, otherwise you would see my wife, my sister and her family dancing around the May Pole snorting like pigs...yes...pigs.

:-)

Hi from Denmark!

We drove over "the Bridge" today and crossed into Denmark from southern Sweden. It was a really easy drive and we got turned around just once. Unfortunately our good camera lens is on the fritz, so we are now taking pictures with our phones.

Copenhagen is a beautiful city, but we noticed right away there were a lot more tourist (lots of Americans) than in Stockholm. Elizabeth and I figured out a Euro-pass will get you here, but not to Stockholm. We walked around today..weather is close to perfect. Had some GREAT ribs tonight...Davis drank beer and William got some new Knight PJs.

We will post more later this week from Lego Land! All praise Marty Moose!!

P.S. from Elizabeth

HOMESICK...BUT WHERE IS HOME?

Dwight and I have been on holiday for only 6 days and we both commented that we had felt a bit homesick for the first time since leaving the States. But we were not sure the place for which we were homesick. Honestly, I think we both missed the sugar white, sandy beaches and warm Gulf water of the Red Neck Riviera. For those who are able to make a trip to this part of the USA...it is a jewel. And to be only a half day's drive away, we were really spoiled. The beaches here are nice but we could not help missing our home away from home (away from home) in Seagrove. We actually decdied to cut our by two days because we want to get back to Stockholm and enjoy our wonderful home in Stocksund near the Baltic.

The drive through southern Sweden was beuatiful. A lot of farm land that we noticed was immaculate. I mean it looked like these farm house and fields were settings for postcards for the area. But every farm was like that...no peeling paint, no old tires, no run down trucks in yard and the land was manicured with perfection which is quite interesting since we noticed in Stockholm, yards and lawns are hardly even "kept". When Dwight bought our weed eater, he commented that his electic razor could probably do a better job at edging. Luckily, we found out weeds are quite welcome in most yards in our neighborhood...everyone seems to have embraced the natural look.

Anyway, we left the beach and were thrilled to have all gotten some sun and relaxation. Dwight and I were like kids arriving at the Royal Raddison in Copenhagen today. Dwight was excited to have a bellman, elevator and wireless broadband. I immediately dumped all my personal effects of the VANITY (imagine that...what a luxury!!!) and planned a bath for the boys and (bathtubs are scarce in Europe) and a one for me. Did I mention it was to nice to find kleenex and soft toilet paper in the room. Needless to say we are glad to be staying in an American hotel and look forward to our time in Copenhagen.

A long way down the holiday road

Those are the lyrics from the theme song of National Lampoon's vacation. That could also be the theme son for the 8+ hours we drove from Stockholm to Ystad on Tuesday.

Rule # 1 about road trips...don't talk about road trips (elizabeth: that was for you!) .

Rule # 2 about raod trips...19 month old kids aren't meant to be locked into a child seat for 8 hours.

Poor Davis...strapped into his safety seat. Any of you that know Davis know that he is full of energy. Sometimes taking Davis across town can be a challenge. He is never in a bad mood...he just wants to play.

This trip was so long that even William was ready to jump out of the car. Just add in dad's back pain and we were all happy to see the resort - well sort of.

I think we all hoped the mere site of the resort would make us forget the long, uncomfortable and 8 dollar per gallon trip to the south of Sweden. However the weeds growing in the cracks of the sidewalk right in front of reception was not the omen we were hoping for. Neither was a third floor room with no elevator (did I mention that we brought everything in our house on this trip?!).

Maybe customer service would save the day? Nay (Swedish for no) it wouldn't. The thing you have to realize about Swedish customer service is this: there are two kinds - slim and none. Slim is defined by asking your waitress for the check and getting it 45 minutes later. None is self explanatory.

How many resorts in America would build a deck around the pool in the middle of July? And of those, how many would let the workers start SAWING and HAMMERING at 7 AM?

If you are reading this don't dispair about our trip. It has really been pretty nice. We have relaxed, sat in the sun, swam in the sea (I will talk about the Swedes obsession with swimming in artic waters later) and had some pretty good food.

We push off tomorrow for Denmark and will spend two days in Copenhagen. The boys have been troopers and are ready to go. William is DYING to go to Lego Land.

We are on a pilgramige to see a Lego! All praise Marty Moose!

Mother's Day

Vaxholm and Grinda (Archipelago)

A short countryside drive and a 45 minute boat ride and we end up on a quiet little island called Grinda where we ate on an outdoor patio overlooking a meadow and the Baltic Sea. It was what you call a perfect day!

The Field's come to visit

Our first visitors came only days after we moved into our house and we were so excited to host Mimi and Papa and "Olden" Thomas and Tia Milena. Thank you for making the trip to Stockholm. Please feel free to confirm with our visitors that our guest quarters are very accommodating if you are trying to decide whether or not to come!

We loved having family to have champaign toasts with on Mother's Day and were excited to do a bit of sight seeing in Stockholm and the Archipelago. Thank you to my dad who is responsible for most of the photos on these most recent entries.

Sprinkler Fun

While Dwight is in Singapore, I thought I would find time to capture more thoughts on our Swedish adventure. As I mentioned to one of my long lost "so called" friends (who will remain nameless since I might disown her if she does not download skype) that I was so thankful that my job as a mother has not changed...even in the midst of everything else being SO different. I still sleep lighter sometimes holding my breath that a little one is not going to awake; I still fret way too much about how well the boys are eating; I still feel the importance of teaching them what is right and wrong and wish I did not raise my voice as much in doing so; I still love playing games with William (even if he continually makes up new rules as we go); I still can't kiss Davis enough; and I still check on them every night and thank God for our many blessings.

What I really started this blog for was to add photos because these are worth a thousand words...maybe more...

Banana Boys!

Both our boys LOVE bananas. And since I recently heard the old saying should be changed to "a banana a day keeps the doctor away"...we have been all eating lots of the delicious, yellow "sports candy".

These are photos are from our deck off the back of the house which we are on all the time...eating, sunning, drawing chalk designs and gardening (William and I have planted herbs, sunflowers and a Beanstalk for Jack).

End of school year activities

William's school is almost out. We have enjoyed a wide variety of special days. The Spring Concert was performed around a flower decorated flag pole and William sang his song about a handsome prince that lived long, long ago.

Later that week we had International Day and William dressed up like Chipper Jones. He had a "passport" and visited table set up by each country represented in the school. We sampled hagas from Scotland, fresh strawberries from Sweden, jellies from Argentina, and sausages & gummie bears from Germany. In order to get the "sweetie" and the passport stamp, the child had to ask the parent a quiz question about their country. William learned kind of money they use in Ireland, what foods came from Italy, what the most popular girl name in Japan is, the colors of the Mexican flag and the national bird of Norway...the Dipper in case you are wondering!

Our most recent school event was Sports Day. William has found a new favorite hero, Sportacus. Sportacus was invented by a Dutchman and is the hero of a place called Lazy Town. Sportacus enjoys sports candy (fruit) and William has really learned about healthy food. In fact, he got a above average mark on his school report saying he displayed "a strong understanding of the importance and ways to keep healthy."

Check out the DVD series if you have youngsters that are not eating their fruits and veggies! We all enjoy watching the adventures of Sportacus and his nemesis, Robbie Rotten!

http://www.lazytown.com/

Davis is starting to say a few words...all one syllable ending in "uh". Bird is Buh, dog is duh and anytime he wants something...he just says..."uh"! And to all our left-hander readers - Emily, Brandon, Grandpa...we have another southpaw to join you!!!

I feel settled...

People have been asking how I like Sweden and am I "settling in"? I can honestly say that today I felt very settled...and it was nice. Maybe things went smoothly - both Dwight and I love our commutes to school and work. I really like the fact that I pass way more people walking or biking than in cars as I take William to school. Davis is sleeping well again and feels very comfortable with his old crib in his new room. I have lost battle for trying to make William dress
up for school.
We were so spoiled with uniforms at Heritage which is the way to go in my opinion. William gets up and dresses himself in jeans, t-shirt and his Auburn hoodie every day.

I went to the grocery on Saturday so the fridge is stocked. We are officially registered with the Swedish authorities (all except the Audi). And recently, I have had time to read a novel Dwight passed along to me. We have yet another Swedish holiday coming up and plan to BBQ again this weekend. We have thoroughly enjoyed a charcoal grill borrowed from a neighbor and I bet we have cooked out more since moving into the house several weeks ago than we did all of last summer in Atlanta.

I have done more shopping at Ikea than I care to add up but the house is in fairly decent shape except for poor Davis' room which has nothing much but his crib. One thing I have not doen is buy anything to go over the windows in any rooms except the bedrooms where black out shades are necessary. It is now 12:46 AM and sunrise is just around the corner! The views from our large window are just beautiful. Watching the sunset from our family room at close to 10:00 tonight was amazing.

William and I are know focused on decorating the play house in the garden. William decided to turn it into Torquilstone, a castle from his favorite book, Ivanhoe. We just finished reading it again...many thanks to his teacher, Mrs. Hill for giving him such an appropriate gift. We are also reading the second book to in the Chronicles of Narnia series. William's passion for books goes way beyond anything either Dwight or I had a child.

The Curse of the New York Yankees

There is always plenty of good old fashion hatred when it comes to sports teams and how they feel about each other. I could name plenty of examples of teams that don't get along. Here in Europe there are weekly examples of this especially in soccer matches (sorry, I just can't call it football...especially because its not).

But some sports rivalries transcend the field. I would say the Atlanta Braves vs. the New York Yankees are a good example of that. First off, everyone hates the Yankees (or so I thought). They spend more money on their roster than Sweden spends on its military. They are arrogant, they always win, but most important their fans are jerks. And if you are a Yankee fan reading this (or having someone read it to you) you know its true.*

When the Yankees and Braves play there is more on the line than a baseball game. In the back of everyone's mind it's the North vs the South...its rich vs poor and it's the city vs the country.

In 1996 the Atlanta Braves were riding high. We had won the World Series in 1995 and stormed back to the championship again in 1996. (side note - any of my British friends that are reading this I don't want to hear a word about how its not the world Series if the WORLD is not competing. Let me clear something up. If the world CAN'T compete then it IS the World Series. You can go put the best team of all stars together from around the globe and I will bet you 20 to 1 that the Milwaukee Brewers could beat them 45-0 in 5 innings.

At any rate the Braves marched up to Yankee Stadium in 96 and promptly took the first 2 games from the Yankees. The Braves dropped the third game, but then dominated the 4th taking a 6-0 lead. This WAS it...not many teams are going to overcome and 3-1 deficit in the World Series. However, the Braves started to come un-glued in the 6th inning after Right Field umpire Tim Welke couldn't get his fat self out of Jermaine Dye's way and a routine pop fly was dropped. It went downhill from there and the Braves ended up losing in extra innings.

The point to this long story is simple. I hate the New York Yankees.

But that is okay right? There are no New York Yankee fans in Sweden...or are there? If I had a nickel for every Yankee hat I see in Sweden I could retire next week. At first I thought it was a novelty. Being so far from home it is just nice to see something that reminds you of the US. I can tell you that sentiment faded pretty damn quick. I started to seeing more and more Yankee hats...everywhere I went I saw a Swede wearing a Yankee hat. What the @!&#??

Why are Yankee fans following me to Europe? Is there no end to this torture? I see so many Yankee hats here I'm certain that I am going to see a Yankee hat on the subway one day and as the head under the hat slowly turns up to look at me its going to be that of a laughing Derik Jeter. He would say, "you can't escape the Yankee curse! (insert evil laugh).

Anyway the point of this is...I hate the New York Yankees.

I hate the Alabama Crimson Tide too, but so far...no Alabama hats have been spotted.

*(footnote) Larry Schapps is the one exception to the rule about Yankee fans. He is a pretty nice guy. If you are reading this Larry, I meant to say all Yankee fans are jerks except for Larry.*

The Day Davis became Self Aware

there was a line in the movie the Terminator about how the "machines" became self aware. It was meant to describe the moment in time when computers realized they could think and act. Ultimately in the movie they took over...The Matrix had a similar plot (shouts out to Neo!)

Well, today Davis became self-aware. I don't mean he became destructive (any more than he usually is - the kid can wreck a steel marble) or that he tried to take over the world and force all human kind into slavery. I just mean he all of the sudden realized he was here and being here is pretty damn fun.

I think he literally knew 5 new words by the time I finished one work day: Da turned into Daddy. Ma turned into Mommy and Do turned into Doggy (by the way Chapel still doesn't like him).

Every since Davis became self-aware he has been dancing, laughing, talking and basically hamming it up. We may be the first family in history to have two sons pursue a career of stand up comedy.

You can't make this stuff up!