Kitty’s Place

We went to the cottage on Friday and stayed until today. It was cold and rained a lot but Ibo did manage to get the lawn mowed Sunday morning before another storm rolled in. So what do you do on a rainy cottage weekend? Play board games of course. We played a couple of different games and LL loved it. He and pappa played with the game boy a lot over the weekend and I woke every morning to the two of them in bed beside me, discussing which Pokemon character was best. *laugh*

When we got home I had an email with pictures of the kittens from Applegrove. They are just darling and I would love to take all three but we had to pick only one so LL picked a little orange and white one that is too sweet. He really wanted to get the gray one as well because in the pictures it looked like they were really great friends and he didn’t want to separate them. He is such a sensitive little guy at times. So I sent off an email and we will decide on a time the kitten can home to us. I am really excited as is LL. Ibo is his usual growly self “why do you want a cat, what can a cat do, what can you do with a cat” but I know he is excited too, he really loves cats. *laugh*

No idea what we will do with the next two weeks of vacation but I am sure something fun. It will not however involve a lot of walking for the next couple of days, I managed to rip open my heel on a nail that had worked its’ way up from the floor at the cottage, a jagged tear, 1 cm long and 1/2 cm deep. It is rather nasty looking but I am sure I won’t die of it. *laugh* It has been well cleaned, soaked and dressed with antibiotic ointment. If it gets red or swollen I will go to the doctor but it looks fine at the moment.

I looked at travel costs for school and depending on what school I get accepted at it will range from 400 crowns a month to 1200 crowns a month and travel time will be anything from 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours. I am so hoping I get accepted for the fall term, I want to get this finished and finally start working as a nurse again.

So at this point in time it looks as if I am on the reserve list for all three schools I applied to. This is a surprise to me. Last week when I looked at the website of the central agency that handles all admissions I saw that I lacked the basic requirements and had not been accepted into any school. I was devastated. I had a cry and then wrote an appeal letter because the only thing they had based my refusal on was my just completed high school education here in Sweden. Nothing about my education from Canada was there.

Yesterday I spoke with Ibo’s uncle and asked if he had any more suggestions for my letter before I mailed it off today and he said no, but he suggested I call the admission officer at the school I wanted. So I did that first thing this morning. I spoke with a very nice woman who explained that my transcripts from school here came in after the cut off date so none of the schools knew I had the swedish I required. She also said that my grades from Canada should have been converted to their worth in the swedish system but they were missing and that I should have received an email about what was missing but it seemed I had not.

After an hour with her on the phone, I called another agency and they looked and after 40 minutes of waiting and talking, they discovered that they had somehow completely missed my paperwork, there were profuse apologies and a promise it would be rectified today.

So in light of the new info I had I rewrote my appeal letter and got the papers I needed to photocopy to send them tomorrow, since I had to appeal by Aug 2nd at the latest. This evening I looked to see if my other information had been added and got the shock of my life. I guess one or both of the people I spoke with today got working behind the scenes and not only was my information all there, I am now on the reserve list for all three schools, even though the woman I spoke to first said I would have to appeal and it would likely be spring term before I got accepted.

In other news, we are in week two of vacation, have taken it easy here. Were out to the cottage and since it had been a month since we were there to mow the lawn, it required 6 wheelbarrow loads of grass clippings to be raked up and I got a blister! *laugh* Imagine that Ibo who only mowed the lawn and trimmed thought I should feel sorry for his red sore hands, I had a blister!

It doesn’t really look as if a trip to Finland will happen but that is ok, I am just as happy to go to the cottage for a few days and relax. I took out some of the stuff I unpacked here and it feels so much more homey to me now, as does the house here with my own dishes and stuff.

LL is enjoying vacation, he is sleeping over at his grandmothers’ tonight and played with friends today. So it has been quiet here and I actually fell asleep on the couch late this afternoon.

How did that happen? It is almost 3 weeks since I posted. It was a hectic 3 weeks, my fellow was in Amsterdam for two of them but actually got to stay home last week and work in his own office. LL and kept very busy with trips to Stockholm, fika, he biked and played with friends, I ran with Rusty and was busy with the dogs.

Now we have vacation, hurrah!!! My fellow is off for a month and we are thrilled that we are going to have him home, even in the same country as us for a month.

Saturday we slept in till 1130, last night we went to bed at 0300. This is definitely vacation schedule. *laugh* We have the cats here for the weekend. We have decided we will get a new cat and I really would like an Applegrove one, since they are used to dogs. We will have to talk to them about it. Speaking of Applegrove, Rusty’s mom is going to have puppies again. That is exciting as is the fact that their dogs have been making fine showings across the country and internationally.

We have no set vacation plans. We are going to the cottage for some of the time and looking at a trip to see Ibo’s grandparents. It will be nice to go to Månkarbo and relax. It was a hard week last week since the 12th would have been my moms’ 69th birthday. I still miss her every day. So I really need a break. *grin*

I have unpacked pretty near all my books now and have been reading like a fiend here. What a treat!

The washing machine is spinning so I guess it is time to go hang up the last load of clothes for the day. I still have to empty the dishwasher and do up the pots and pans from dinner. As usual, my day just keeps on going and going and going. *laugh*