We went to Luleå for a wedding this past weekend, and had a really good time. We all wished we could have stayed longer, but the realities of life required us to return home on Sunday evening. We stayed in a cute little cabin at a camping area. There were a lot of wedding guests staying at the same place, and we started Friday evening with a bar-b-que. There were a lot of international guests, and I really enjoyed hearing the languages. French is a truely beautiful language. Though I did not know much french, and they didn't know so much english, I enjoyed the evening- including the grilled bananas! Then I played volleyboll with the youth for a while before going to bed at 2 am. The sunrise was beautiful, and the kids and I went on a photo safari before turning in. (We have 24 hours of light right now) Saturday we slept in till 10, then got up for some late breakfast. We walked around the camp a while, then got ready for the wedding. A bus would transport us all from the camp to the wedding and back again after the reception. We were to be ready and on the bus by 1:00, so till we got ready and ate a quick lunch, it was time to go. The weather was perfect- sunny and warm with a slight breeze. They had everything in swedish(Emma is swedish) and french (Sulvan is french).Tom Ruschman from Jokkmokk was the pastor that married them, and he was able to speak both languages. (And english)

After the wedding, the couple drove off in a beautiful old buick while the guests walked to the reception hall. The food was remarkable, as was the entertainment.

Katrina got a chance to dance with the groom, Sulvan. She was impressivly good! Kris and I danced a few dances as well, and Björn joined us for one dance too! We had fun, but got pretty tired by the time 2am came around. We took the bus back to the cabins, just in time to witness the most beautiful sunrise- even more georgous than the day before. After helping Tomas and Birgitta (brides parents and extra grandparents to my kids) I decided to go on a photo safari. I was out for 1½ hours taking pictures and enjoying myself. Then I thought that the prudent thing would be to go to bed and sleep. So I stayed up another hour helping the kids get settled in, doing sudoko and taking another walk. I finally turned in around 3:30, only to wake up at 5 for a bathroom call. And again at 6, and 7. Then Björn woke up and we went for a walk and talked for a couple hours. Katrina joined us later, and we decided to clean out the cabin and pack the car. We were invited to lunch with Tomas and Birgita at 1:00pm, so we needed to get busy.
After lunch, the kids decided to take a quick dip in the water. They scrounged up some towels, a change of clothes and in they went. I can't imagine where their thermostats are, the water was cold! But in they went anyways. Till they were done, it was soon time for us to leave. We had a long drive home and unpacking to do. So home we went (after a ½ hour of goodbyes) to prepare for the upcoming week.

That's it f or now! This week I need to prepare a sermon and do a little paper work. Then I am off for another 2 weeks.

Have a good one y'all!

roofing,shower, and manacures

Yesterday the neighbors started to repair their roof. There were only 2 guys working on it, so I decided to give them a hand. I knew it was going to rain in the afternoon, and that they really needed to get moving. Then I went to the garage to finish painting a motorcycle gas tank that is in. Today I hope to start the cartoon figure- betty boop- which will take quite a while. It has at least 7 different colors, and 39 small and large areas. Each area has it's own mask which needs first be places correctly, then removed to get that area painted, and replaced to protect that area from other colors. A tedious job that has many steps and takes a lot of time. That's my job!

While I was working yesterday, another customer showed up. I had repainted a moped for him last year, and he has a new project going. He wondered if I would be willing to do another moped for him. Cool! But that job won't be in fo a month or so. That is fine with me, I know he will come back.

Yesterday afternoon and evening were really painful for me. I was super tired too, and slept most of the day. I am feeling a little refreshed, but still have a bit of pain- I guess I am not as use to doing construction work as I want to believe that I am! (A long way of saying," I am NOT getting old!)

I was planning on working on the shower yesterday, but that didn't happen either. The day before I did a little. Here are the next round of pictures. After working from the bottom up, I neened to find out how far down from the roof I would go before I could not lay in a new row. This was a little more challenging, because the roof is even more uneven than the floor. So I found the lowest part of the roof and started working down from there. Working down was more challenging than working up from the floor. Than nasty thing called gravity worked against me, pulling on the tiles. I has to have the perfect amount of mud on the tiles so they would stick on the wall, but not wilt or sag. Then it was just to lay one tile after another. When I got to a pipe, I skipped over it and continued on the other side. At the end of the wall, I measured how much to cut off, layen in the right piece, and continued the next row with the part I had cut off. That ment almost no tiles to be thrown away! When I finally got down to the shower spiggot, it left a gap of almost 10 inches. That was a little bigger than I had planned, but OK! Then came the fun! I had chosen mosiac triangles that are blue and in different sizes for the floot and boarder. That is what I will be putting in the boarder , around the pipes, and on the floor. So, I started with the boarder and around the pipes up at the roof. So, what do you think? Oncethat was done, the mud needed a day to dry before I can put in the fog. (That's the gunk that goes between the tiles and filles the gaps between the mosiac piececes.) I will do that next, right before I do the final touches on the floor.

While I was working on the shower, Katrina was working on Kris. This is how a man shows his daughter that he loves her! Kris let Katrina give him a french manacure! When he came down to check on the progress of the shower, the ironi struck me. I had rough hands with cement on them, and my husband had a beautiful french manicure! I wasn't at all jelous and I don't think he was either. That' called complimenting each others strengths and weaknesses. And Kris' manicure lasted longer than Katrinas!

That's it for now, folks. Have a good one y'all!

The Swedish Chef and moose

We just couldn't resist a few things when Anthony and Lori were staying with us. There is a really good resteraunt in Umeå called Viktors, and we decided to take them there. Kris' sister played driver, and we headed in on Thursday evening around 6. We had the 4 course meal with a cheese platter- something the boys really enjoyed. (Lori was pretty full and I am not a huge cheese fan- but it was good!) As usual, the food was absolutly delicious! We took a walk around the block between the 3rd and fourth course- we were feeling quite stuffed and in need of some fresh air. After the desert we sat and chatted on the sofas a while before Anette picked us up. It was a lovely evening!



















The other thing we just had to do was to take A&L to the moose farm. There is a small place just west of us that raises moose, milk the mothers and sell the calves to various zoos and parks around the world. The milk is sent to be made into cheese. We went through the museum, watched a slide presentation, ant then we went out to see the calves. There was a maze made that you can go through (If you can find your way!), so we did that fo a while. Then there was a group that had seen the slides and were going into the calves, so we joined them. That was exciting!





After petting them a while, we went into the next enclosure which had a 3 year old bull and one of the mothers- 2½ years old. They were a little bigger! We took some more pictures and petted the bull, asked a few more questions and decided we were hungry. So we went in and had a wonderful moose meat stew and potatoes. When our bellies were sufficiently stuffed, we went home to the couches.


I have been working some more on the shower, and can see that it is going to take a few more days. I will be so glad when it is done! Here are the next pictures: The walls are spackled, but the floor needs a new try to get it to lean towards the drain. I decided to start laying the tiles on the walls and work on the floor after the walls are done. So, out came the level, string, trowel, fix and tiles, change into grubby clothes and start laying . First I did a corner near the faucet for the shower, from the bottom up. When I couldn't lay a whole tile without hitting the pipes, I stopped. The rest would have to wait for the next day. Then I poured a little more cement around the drain and against the walls. The final floor finishing would be done a few days later. To be continued...


1.fix on back of tile 2. put on wall 3. keep it level 4. add another
tile, and
another...


Yesterday I went into Umeå with a friend. We went to a few stores, ate lunch at Mc D's, did a few errands,(I needed to get a screw for my exhaust pipe- need to inspect it on Thursday morning, so the muffler needs to be quieted to pass the noise requirements.) and went to the spa for a swim afterwards . We had a fun time getting our feet tickled and getting rasin hands. A quick fika of garlic bread, tomatoe sauce and roast beef sandwich with a side od wasabi nuts finished off the day. NICE! Today I will put the muffler on my bike back together, go to the dump with some trash.


Have a good one y'all!

US Visit

The house seems empty today- Anthony and Lori have continued on to Stockholm yesterday afternoon. We had a great time!

We spent a lot of time just talking, sitting on the couches outside and having a good time. We did some kind of activity (mostly to keep the kids happy) every day, but not near all the things the kids wanted to do. What a wonderful couple! I really enjoyed their visit and already anticipate their next visit.

Even Jackie had alot of fun. She had a larger pack to play tug of war with! We did a lot of things, like make sushi together, go on a motorcycle ride (both Anthony and Lori went for a ride), did a beer tasting evening, went to the moose farm, and had an evening out to a nice resteraunt- Viktors. (No kids along on that trip) The youth group came over on uesday and we played Kubb and watched a movie. We went shopping in Umeå, ate at Max (hamburgers) and visited the chocolate store. Unfortunatly the truffels we were going to eat melted in the car because we all forgot to take them in! Lori made supper for us on Saturday and Kris' sister and her 2 girls were with us for the meal. Yummies! Hard to believe we crammed it all in within 6 days! Hope it wasn't too much running around for Anthony and Lori! All too soon it was time for them to jump on the plane for Stockholm. We will miss you both! Come back soon- PLEASE?!

I will have to add some details that we just don't want to forget as I continue blogging. But for now, the shower is calling. I did not mean that I am taking a shower- already did that!! I am renovating the shower in the basement- an ongoing project that I started a couple weeks before Anthony and Lori came. My goal was to get it done before they came, but it didn't quite happen that way.This picture is how it looked in the beginning. I had already started to fix the walls when I remembered to take a "before" picture.

Here I have spackeled the walls and started to pour the cement for the floor. It was leaning in towards the wall so the water pooled next to the wall instead of going down the drain.

I have done a lot more, but now you will have to wait till next time to see the next step!

And now, Kris is up and watching West Wing, so I will get some breakfast and go work on the shower.

Have a good one y'all.