Kitty’s Place

Well after I posted yesterday I threw together the most makeshift dinner every and then at 1830 I was so exhausted and felt very feverish, so I went to bed. I asked the guys to wake me in an hour and LL did, but when I woke I had a headache of migraine proportion so I went back to sleep and stayed that way till 0700 this morning. I got up then, took something for the headache, took the dogs out and back to bed but the two of them carried on so much that I had to separate them and so came out to the living room and read till Ibo got up. I still was feeling really blah with a horrid headache so my temper was flaring way too much. Finally I went into the bedroom with my book and Rusty and calmed down. *laugh*

About 1100 we all headed out to grocery shop but first we had to stop at the library to see a stamp display, something being hosted by the local stamp club. Llywellyn had 3 pages he had put together at stamp club during the past two meetings. One was “My Best Stamps”, another was “Soil and Wheels” and the third had no title. He got a gift for coming from his stamp club instructor (stamps! *laugh*) and he got to pick through a huge box of stamps and fill a bag with whatever he wanted. One of the men who is active is a fellow who Ibo knows from politics. I met him first 4 years ago when he tried to convince me to vote in the election and I had a hard time explaining to him why I couldn’t. *laugh* He asked us when dad and mom were going to start collecting stamps and Ibo said he used to but there really isn’t time for it now and I said I did when I was young but I had given all mine to Llywellyn.

After LL had picked out his stamps we took a contest entry downstairs to the cafe and filled it in while we had pastries and drinks. Then he took it back up and left it. We stopped in at ÖoB and got a few things, including the gift for LL to take with to a birthday party tomorrow and I stopped into Carmen and finally, after 6+ years here, I found pantyhose that fit nice, look nice and were not expensive. That is a biggie, since I was thinking about asking Aunt Maud to mail me some from Canada.
Then we headed to Eurostop to grocery shop. But it was a zoo and after leaving my shoes in to get the heels fixed, we decided to shop at Coop instead and so we just wandered about at Eurostop looking in stores while LL played with a friend in the kids area in the middle of the mall. We got a reflective collar for Rusty because he is so dark at night and it is hard to see him, not a  problem with Susan. We also got some grooming tools for him, since his fur is such a different type from Susans.

By that point it was 1400 and I was so hungry, so we went to McDonalds. I can count on one hand how many times I have been there this past year but it was close and fast and LL loves it. We had filet of fish and he had mcnuggets happy meal. It was not the best meal ever but it took the edge off my hunger. *laugh* Finally we headed to Coop where we grocery shopped. That took about an hour and then we came home. My headache is still there but not quite so bad now and I am going to go now and curl up with one of the books that came from Canada. It is like christmas being able to pick and choose from among all my most treasured books again. LL is busy playing with his gameboy and Ibo is napping. Our “little boy” is napping too at the moment, reenergizing for more running and playing and Susan is having a nap with Ibo. We are a lazy bunch but that is a good thing occasionally.

This has been what Anne Shirley would call a “Jonah” day. The alarm went at 0600 and I just could not get out of bed. I did finally get up at 0630, woke LL, got his breakfast ready, fed Susan, fed Rusty, took them both out, nagged at LL to finish showering, took my own shower and off we went to school. Ibo dropped me off up the hill at school so I could get a cappucino and that was pretty much the highlight of the day. *laugh*

I was the only student there from my course. It was a teacher conference day but when I left school on Wednesday the deal was that we were to come to school and work in our designated groups for Stockholm week, that is upon us in just one more week. Well I was at the high school yesterday for my distance course and apparently everyone in the entire course decided that we have all next week to meet in our groups, so everyone was going to work from home today.

I couldn’t even get on the next bus home because LL was having a friend home today and I needed to wait and see his dad (who is a teacher at the school) and find out what time to meet up with his wife to collect the boys. So I worked on homework till just before 1000 and then went up to the cafeteria for coffee and again, I was the only person there. The teachers showed up a few minutes later and I heard the news that his wife was ill and so there would be no visit today.

Off I went to the bus and decided to do errands. I did the shopping for toiletries and such, then picked up the dry cleaning. I was so happy that I made it to the bus station in time and was hurrying to get on, both hands full with bags and dry cleaning, when the bus driver closed the door and drove away, while I was a metre away from it.

I took the next bus and came home, took out the dogs, fed Rusty and then scrounged about for some lunch, since we are in great need of doing a big grocery shop. After putting away the dry cleaning and shopping, it was time to get back on the bus and go to pick up LL. The bus from home was late. Luckily so was the one I had to change to, but the downside was that I was not there to meet Llywellyn’s bus from school. When I did get there and broke the news about his friend not coming over today, he stood in the parking lot and sobbed for 5 minutes. I felt like such a horrid mom. To make up I said we could go and fika and while that was ok, it was a poor substitute.

Fika was ok, but there was nothing that really appealed to me and my coffee was bitter. I think it was just because I was in a bad mood from all the other things. *laugh* We did a bit more shopping and then came home. I haven’t a clue what to make for dinner, I think we should just use up whatever is left and hopefully we can grocery shop tomorrow at some point.

I need to change my appointment time for Monday morning with the psychologist but I can’t get ahold of him.

The best I can say for the day is that now we are all home and I hope we can have a relaxing evening here. *laugh*

Time really does fly. *laugh* It has been a busy week at school so far. Monday I went in to the city and had time with the psychologist. It went well, but it is really tiring to deal with emotions. *laugh* I saw one of the teachers from my school there and had a little chat with him.
Tuesday was swedish and it was a good class. I like our new swedish teacher very much, she has some new fresh methods that are fun and effective. We are working on a project to present on to the class Oct. 17th and that was fun to do.
Today was civics class, very interesting class about the development of unions and various organizations in the 1800’s in Sweden. I love this stuff! Our homework includes interviewing someone who is a member in an organization or association.

Tomorrow I miss math class yet again because I have to go to the high school for my “Ethics and life questions in healthcare” course. It is a distance course but we meet once every 3 weeks. It is really interesting, nothing new but it is interesting to be reviewing this stuff in a new language.

We are all well here, Ibo is busy as always, LL is busy too with homework and tonight is stamp club. Rusty is having a bout of diarrhea, likely related to chewing on everything he can get his teeth on when we are not home. We continue to work on his training and every day I wake up and think how lucky I am that we have him here. He is just so sweet, although he does have a temper. *laugh* We start the puppy course in 11 days and I am thinking we will send in an application to show him in November in Enköping.

Today was LL’s birthday party at Barnens Djungel. It was a big success! 8 guests and the birthday boy, played, climbed, hopped, jumped and had so much fun together. A giant ape came to deliver the ice cream and a gift for LL. All the kids had to hug him, it was cute. Ibo took a lot of pictures and they can be seen in the gallery section of his blog.
As well as the kids, Jonas and Eva came to the party and then came back here after, where we visited, played with LL’s new toys and had pizza together. It was so nice to see them, I think it is sad we live so far away from each other now.

Rusty loved the company, he is so social. Susan enjoyed it too but she is not so outgoing (or is that active) as the puppy is. He has grown so much that today when he tried to sit up under the kitchen table he bonked his head. When we brought him home he could go under the bar halfway between the floor and the top of the coffee table. Today when he stood under the coffee table, his back was touching the underside of the top. It is amazing how quickly they grow.

Just now he is having a nap beside me on the couch, he has discovered it is more comfy to sleep there than to sleep on the floor.

Tomorrow I have laundry time and want to do some more sorting out of the spare room and the storage area. I am hoping to get out for a long walk again and of course I have homework to do. Not a stressful day at all.
I am feeling better every day but I am still having nightmares and wake up sad in the middle of the night pretty much every night. I am hoping this will stop soon as I keep working with David. So what have I learned this past month? If you are raped when you are 18, don’t keep it a secret and hide it away for 30 years, deal with it when it happens and life will be much less painful in the future. I wish I had known this then, but I didn’t, so I am dealing now and am confident that every week it will be easier and the nightmares will soon go away. *smile*

So this is a very egotistical post. I have been working hard on seeing myself in a more positive light. Last June I started walking and stopped eating meat and poultry, stopped adding sugar to stuff and decided I was going to do the Tjejmilen (10 km run) in 2007. Today I am down 18 kg, I got my hair cut, permed and coloured, I have started wearing makeup and I have a ton of self confidence. A week or so ao when I went in to Stockholm a stranger flirted with me on the train for 30 minutes. It was fun. The past couple days at school I have been talking to some of the fellows and it has been fun as well. Not outright flirting, just that borderline talk kind of thing. I haven’t done this for a very long time and it is amusing and a real ego boost. I could get used to this way of life very quickly. *laugh*

Today Ibo called just as LL got off the school bus and since he was on his way home, he came and picked us up. I stopped at the grocery store and when I got home he went out running with Susan. We had dinner when he got back, then LL went across the courtyard to a friends house and I took Rusty and went for a walk. I would guess it is about 2.5 km, not as long as I was doing before school started, but a nice distance to start back with. Since school started I have only been walking from school to the bus station and from the bus stop to home. That is always in heels so it is not really a good walk. Needless to say I really enjoyed it and hope that I can get back on track with walking and working out at the gym. There is still pain from the rib but one pain pill a day is sufficient to let me go to school and function.

School was fun today. We had a man from Swaziland come and speak to our class. He was very interesting. On my way home to take out Rusty before I went back to pick up LL, I had a 15 minute wait at the station. He was there to take a train to Uppsala so I went over and chatted some with him. A very nice, friendly man.

Tomorrow LL is having his birthday party. How wonderful it is that it is being held elsewhere. *laugh*

Our “baby” turned 8 today. How did that happen???? It is just a little time ago he was born. *laugh* Llywellyn loves to ask me about his birth. He likes to hear about how the nurse said to me that no, I was not having the baby now and then when I insisted I was and she looked and saw he was coming, they ran down the hall with the bed to get me to the delivery room. It is the running part he thinks is the best. *laugh*
We got up early and woke LL at 0630, both of us singing happy birthday to him. After his shower and breakfast he brought his gift into our bedroom where pappa had scooted back to bed after singing and opened it. He was thrilled with the flexi-trax. He has been talking about them since last spring when he played with them at a friends. Then we all headed out for the day. I went back to school, it went well but I still have a fair amount of pain. I understand that is normal with a broken rib, it takes a long time to really heal. It was nice to see all my classmates and interesting in civics class. I was done by noon and came home, took out the dogs, baked a birthday cake, got everything ready for dinner and then headed back to pick up LL from school.

After we got home Llywellyn read his email and he had 3 ecards waiting. Then he got phone calls from Rose and from Aunt Maud. We set the table with Caillou napkins and tablecloth in preparation for dinner with his grandparents. They arrived a bit before 1800, in time to chat some with Ibo before he headed off to a meeting. Dinner was nice and then we had cake and ice cream after. LL’s aunt called from Egypt and he thought that was terrific. Farmor and farfar sang the swedish birthday song to LL so he had both today. He got his much desired Tamagoutchi from his grandparents and after they went home we set it up and it is a girl. I have it here now since he is gone to bed but it is still awake and requesting food etc. *laugh*

Tomorrow at school we are going to have dancing in the afternoon, traditional swedish folk dance and salsa. I have already given notice I will just be watching. *laugh*

Friday the four of us are going to go out for lunch for Ruth’s birthday. She is going to pick Halima and I up from school and Cyndi will meet us. I am glad we are managing to see each other fairly often even though we no longer all go to school together. When Rose called we made a date to fika together next Thursday. My social calendar is getting very full.

I am going to wash up the pots from dinner and then it is bedtime. I can’t believe how tired I am still, since I finished the pills 2 days ago.

What a totally interesting night it was last night. The social democrats (ndp is our closest in Canada) who have been in power federally for the past 12 years, lost the election to the moderaterna (pc is probably the closest in Canada). It will be interesting to see what happens. The thing with the government here is that it always a coalition type government, so the moderaterna have a mandate but only because they have a number of other parties in an alliance with them. The question of the day is how well will they all work together down the road, since of course each party has their own agenda.

Then we come to our municipality and my oh my it is interesting. We have 51 council seats so to have a mandate to govern 26 seats are needed. The alliances here are such that the moderaterna have 23 seats at the moment, social democrats have 25 seats. The center party removed themselves from the alliance with the moderaterna pre election and they have 2 seats and then there are the sweden democrats, who won one seat on council. They are a party who are very nationalistic and have a mindset of if immigrants can’t integrate into swedish society, then send them back where they came from. For a municipality with 1/3 of the residents who are immigrants, this is not a good thing, at least in my mind. I have read a fair bit of their ideology and it just doesn’t sit well with my own multicultural upbringing in Canada. So as it stands, neither of the 2 blocs have a mandate and so now we wait and see if the center party will align themselves with the social democrats or one of the other parties in the moderaterna bloc will switch alliances. Then there is the matter of the uncounted votes. All votes recieved on the 16th (the day before the election) will be counted on Wednesday. So it is possible but not probable that those votes could change the currents standings. I have to say that I find it fascinating how the system here works. Of course this is just my interpretation of what I have read. *laugh*
We had a nice evening at the election watch. There was a buffet and while he was very busy and I didn’t see much of him, Ibo kept an eye and got me a couple of glasses of wine. I switched to mineral water around midnight and then at 1245 the final results for the municipality were in and we were informed of the situation here. At that point everyone left and Ibo gave me a ride home and then went back for a bit. It was 2 am when he got home and I felt sorry for him when he got up this morning, it was a long day for him yesterday.

We picked up LL and dropped him at school, then Ibo dropped me off at the train station and I went into the city. I had an appointment with David and it went well. He is really helping me deal with some issues and I am so glad to be able to have a therapist who is a native english speaker. After that I went to the toy store and got LL’s birthday gifts. I got the one big thing he really wanted and then Ibo suggested we get a bunch of small things so he has lots to open. I ended up with 8 small, the big one and a musical card. The nice thing about BR Leksaker is that you can wrap the gifts there. So everything is wrapped and ribboned and tucked away in the closet for Wednesday.

Rusty is getting better with the being home in the day. I took the two of them out before we left this morning, Ibo came home at lunch and took them out. I got home at 1500 and it was out again and then I took Rusty out when I came back from picking up LL at 1630 so we could train a bit without Susan as a distraction. He is managing to wait till we take him out most of the time now. I can’t believe how fast he is growing. Sadly he and Susan are still not such good friends, mostly because he wants to eat her food and play with her toys instead of his own. Susan growls at him but is not really aggressive enough about protecting what is hers. She does however let Rusty know in no uncertain that he is not allowed to nip at her. *laugh*

Life is feeling settled at the moment and that is a nice thing for all of us.

I voted!!! It was so great to be able to go to the school with my voting card and cast my votes. It was great that I could vote for all 3 levels of government and that it was wonderful to have at last been able to do my little part towards the governing of my new country.

I walked over with Ibo and Llywellyn. He went in with his dad to the voting booth and then when it was my turn, he came with me and explained how I was to do it, since it was my first time and he had seen how with pappa. *laugh* For my part I had a million questions for Ibo about voting here and he patiently answered them all.

LL is off with his grandparents. There is a carnival in town and they are taking him to it and then he is spending the night with them. There is going to be a get together at a local eatery waiting for election results. I am going to it. I asked Ibo if he minded and he said I should do what I want. I want to go because this is such a special day for me, finally being able to vote. I want to go for Ibo as well, it is a special day for him, he has worked hard this election and he is really a good politician who cares very much about the municipality and the people here. I hope he gets reelected along with his party and they can continue the stellar job they have done this past 4 years for our municipality.

I am still having pain but nothing like it was a couple weeks ago, only one more day of pills left but she did give me enough for another 10 days if I need them. I think I will stop them after tomorrow and go back to school on Wednesday. I have been working on homework today and there doesn’t seem to be so much I have missed being away this past week.

Tomorrow I am going into Stockholm, have an appointment with David again. Then I am going to shop for Llywellyn’s birthday gift and I think I will get a special cake mix from Grays, maybe one of those Betty Crocker confetti cakes. His grandparents are coming for dinner on Wednesday but Ibo is not sure he is going to be able to make it home between work and his meeting. We will make it a special birthday dinner, even if pappa is not there. *smile* Ibo is going to be with on Saturday when we have his party at http://www.barnensdjungel.se/index_content.html .

It is a lovely day today! LL is out playing in the sandbox, both dogs are laying in the sun at the balcony door and I am taking a few minutes to catch up on emails and post here.

I am feeling better. But now I see why the doctor said it would be best to stay home for the entire 10 days I am on this medication. The first day it was fine, but as the week wore on, I got nauseated, lost my appetite and am so tired I have to force myself to move. The good side is that the pain is decreasing every day and now it is worst first thing in the morning since I don’t take the pills till 8 am.

I was out with Rusty on Wednesday morning and saw Cyndi driving into the parking lot at the school across the way. So I went and talked to her and she came here for a short visit  after the job interview she had at the school. That was fun.

The week has gone quickly. Ibo has been really busy with all the week before election stuff. He has been dropping LL off at school and I have been picking him up, doing homework with him and getting his dinner and tucking him in. Wednesday and last night Ibo was home in time to read to him at bedtime. Wednesday Ibo took LL to stampclub, did some work at the office, took me to the parents meeting at LL’s school, picked up Llywellyn and picked me up. So he did a lot of ferrying around of us.

Thursday our stuff arrived from Canada. So now one corner of our living room is piled high with 56 boxes of stuff. We need to look and see what we are keeping and then stuff we don’t need right now we will store in the attic at the cottage for now. We are planning on moving to a house where we will have more space and then we can start using the stuff we can’t fit in the cupboards here.

I spoke with Ruth on Tuesday and we had talked about getting together so she can teach me how to make sushi. Sadly she is not feeling well at the moment and the morning we had picked was the only time this week they could deliver our boxes, so it has been postponed. But all that talk of sushi made me think about it, so I picked some up yesterday and Ibo and I had a late dinner of sushi.
That kind of sums everything up. I am undecided about school next week. I will be done with the pills on Monday and I think I will wait until after that to go back. Tomorrow is election day and I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am to vote. It was really a bummer last election that I was 6 months short of the 3 years residency requirement, so I have waited 6 years to be able to cast a vote in Sweden. We discussed the election at school last week and I made my voice heard on how very important it is to get out and vote. Here the system is different in that there are a lot of places where you can vote in advance and there is even a bus that goes around to the different neighbourhoods where you can vote. It is very much an “at your convenience” type of thing, not a couple days where you can prevote for a short time at one place in the city. The voter turneout in our municipality last election was 73.7% (and that is low for Sweden). I think that it is great so many people do vote and hope it is much higher this time.

It really has been far too long since I updated here. I was to the clinic on the 4th and the doctor I saw felt I had injured the muscles in my chest wall and gave me a cream to apply to the area. He also suggested I get a breast reduction. *laugh*

The rest of the week was difficult, I am very emotional at the moment and cry at the drop of a pin. I did manage through half a day of swedish on Tuesday and civics on Wednesday. Thursday I was in to Stockholm to see another doctor and Friday I was back to our local clinic where I saw yet another doctor who did a very thorough exam and told me that the pain in my chest is from a hairline fracture of the rib that is directly under my left breast. She gave me a prescription and I am to stay home for the next week, taking these pills 3 times a day. No working out for at least the next two weeks and then I am to take it slowly, but I can continue walking.

We are planning LL’s birthday party. I can’t believe he is going to be 8! It was hard for him to decide which friends to invite but we ended up with a list of 10. He is doing fine, a bit nobby but not so much so. He is really having fun with Rusty now, no longer flinches away from the puppy when he jumps up, he is firm with him and Rusty listens to him now.
Rusty is growing like a weed here. We took him to the vet on Tuesday for his 12 week shots. We also got the medicine for deworming that he needs again and medicine to keep fleas and ticks off him. So it has been a medical kind of week for Rusty. He has been out a lot, we were to a gårdfest (political bbq kind of event) on Tuesday and Wednesday. Ibo was working there, LL went with his grandfather and I walked over, Tuesday with both dogs, Wednesday with just Rusty. Thursday there was an inauguration ceremony for the new road here. Ibo brought Rusty and then I took him home. Today we walked to the inauguration ceremony for a new park. All this pre election stuff is getting Rusty into crowds and the chance to meet other dogs. He is great with people and great with other dogs. He is however very scared of anything with wheels, even those wheeled walkers elderly people use. So we are working on that, making him see that they are not dangerous at all. I haven’t worked so much with him as far as ring training, but since I am off school next week and the pills are working to keep the pain under control, we will put in some time everyday next week. He does so much already, sit, stay, lie down, up, down (as in get down from the table, you are not eating our food *laugh*) He has discovered the joy of chewing on shoes so he is learning a new command, drop it. We will be going to a puppy training course the beginning of October. The woman who has the course had a ton of questions for us, why did we get a puppy, why this breed, had we researched the breed and was he a good fit for our family. I like when people think along those lines, it is important to have researched beforehand and have an idea of what a particular type of dog is going to need to have a happy healthy life.
We are still working on the house training. It should go better now that I will be home in the day for a few more days. He is good to go to the door if he has to go out but he just sits there and since we can’t see the door from anywhere except the kitchen, we don’t always know he is waiting. I take him out at 6ish when I get up and then we go out every 3 to 4 hours or so.

This next week will likely be frantic for Ibo, with the election being next Sunday. I only have two things on my agenda and of course both are the same time. *laugh* Wednesday is the first stamp club meeting of the fall for Llywellyn. It is also parents meeting at his school. So I am trying to organize that I will go to the meeting with one of the other parents after dropping LL at stamp club and then Ibo can pick him up and I will be home an hour after that.