Long Time, No Blog

What a whirl wind of a week. Work was crazy and life is starting to become even more hectic.

I had jury duty (again) this past Monday and we are currently in the process of trying to come to terms with a contract on our house. They offered really low so we have now countered twice. Hopefully we can come to an agreement soon. We signed our contract on the apartment this week too. It's located in Taby which is 20 minutes (by train) northwest of Stockholm. The apartment happens to be right near Taby Centrum which is the largest shopping mall in Sweden! That really helps since we won't be buying a car until the spring. Anders and I also realized that we only have this weekend and next to really decide what we want to ship and what we want to sale since we will be in Albuquerque over Labor Day weekend. We'd like to have our moving sale that following weekend. AAGGHHH - is that a speeding train ahead??! One of my Dad's favorite statements is "there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's NOT a train" - however, it certainly feels like it might be some days.

Today we took Reagan to a dog park while we had another showing. Since a lot of her activity in Sweden will now consist of walks and dog parks, I wanted to see how she would do with other dogs. She could have cared less about them. She took some of the community tennis balls and just ran around sniffing her little heart out. The park is by White Rock Lake and the created a fenced entrance for the dogs to swim in and out of. It was perfect!!! Anders' Mom and Dad both have summer homes near lakes, and I also wanted to make sure she wouldn't swim across the lake instead of coming back. It worked very well and I feel better about us not having a yard for her when we first get there.

Anders has an interview with a travel agency in the next couple of weeks and we go to the Swedish consulate Tuesday after Labor Day for my resident permit interview. Our to-do list is really going to ramp up when we get back from New Mexico, so I really hope I can relax while I am there!

In closing...

ATTENTION ALL ALBUQUERQUE ATCHLEYS - Please kindly provide (1) bottle of Champagne for consumption at the end of the 1/2 marathon on Sunday. Thank you! ;-)

Love,
Monica

My Bad

I have heard from so many friends and family about our blog and I am so happy you are checking it out. I realized in my mass email to let you know we were leaving, I left out some details. Oops!

We are scheduled to leave for Sweden on October 4th. We'll drive up to Chicago with the pets that Sunday and spend a few days with Sarah & Jonas. We could technically fly from Dallas, but I didn't want to put the pets through an airline transfer in Chicago. This way we just put them on and collect them once we arrive. The pets are pretty much ready to go. We just have two more things to do before we leave, but it has to be completed in September.

As for the living situation - we have an apartment where we can stay but we are looking for one a little bigger. We will be living in Stockholm which is about 1 hour north of where Anders' grew up. If you haven't been, you should go. I know everyone says summer is the best time (which, in some cases it is) but I think winter is just as beautiful. According to Anders, Stockholm's weather is like Boston's which is muy bueno.

Speaking of muy bueno, I received an email reply from one of the many resumes I sent. This was from a school inquirying if I was bilingual and could teach spanish to children. I was too excited!! It felt good to know I am a viable candidate in the Swedish labor pool too.

Anders has also sent his resume out to a ton of people (friends included) and posted on the Swedish job board. He has a few possibilities in the pocket, but he really wants to find something similar to what he does now (title examiner).

Have a great rest of the week - I'll keep you updated as we progress!!!

Love,
Monica

The House

I wish we could have had more of my family visit our house while we lived here, because it is a lot of fun. We have a swimming pool in the backyard plus enough grass for Reagan, our dog, to play on. Her favorite game involves her tennis ball (and no one else, mind you). She'll sit on the edge of the pool for hours flicking the ball into the pool then watching it float around before either diving in or patiently waiting on the side to grab it. I swear, if it weren't for the extreme heat or meal time, she would probably sit out there all day doing this over, and over, and over again. She's going to miss this pool more than we do, most likely.

Kissel, my cat (because Anders would never claim to own him), doesn't really go out much. He's so funny - he runs to the door like he wants to escape but given the chance he goes out for a few moments then runs back inside. When it was cooler this year (does anyone remember cooler weather?!), he would stay outside a little longer and even hung out with me on the glider. But his all time favorite spot is on the steps by our door sunning himself. You can tell from the picture he is in the corner so Reagan can't bother him.

Unfortunately, this weekend was a little slow with showings. We only had one scheduled which ended up being a no-show. That is the absolute worst - sitting around, not messing anything up, waiting for the realtor so you can run out the back. We did this for 2 hours - grrrrr. Oh well - it's part of the home selling process, right? At least the "kids" agreed to help Anders and I with the packing...

"Find your own box, goldie..."

Love,
Monica

Welcome!!

Welcome to our blog. We created this blog so all of our families could keep up with us and our daily lives. We hope to post here as often as possible and give you up to date information about our move and new lives in Sweden.

We really want to hear from everyone, so please feel free to leave comments!!!

Love to you all,
Monica & Anders