We went to Cabot's for some ice cream! I felt summer-like!

 We have discussed about something like "halvåtta hos mig" with lunches. This time we were at Terese's house.

Watermelon as dessert, like it!

 

This Sunday we went to the amusement park Six Flags!

 

 

An awesume day!!!

Afterall, a fun day but baseball was not really worth it. But now I have done it :) After this Julia headed home, to work and Terese and I went to Michael's and Marshalls before we went home to my place. We had a sleepover that night and picked Julia up at 11pm when she got off work. Next up: SIX FLAGS amusementpark!!!!!

 It was a sunny day so I took Arno to Cold Spring Park to play baseball.

 

 

 

 Look who I skyped with last week!

Mirea found my high heeled shoes!

FINALLY!!

After about 15 hours (atleast that's how long I have been awake) the finally captured the 19 year-old bomb man! He was sitting in a boat or something in someones yard.

Me and my friends had planned a fancy dinner and a sleepover tonight, but non of that happend because of him.. Now we're hoping to be able to go to our red sox game tomorrow, so we won't miss all of our plans!

 Lori were supposed to fly to D.C for a meeting at friday, but the flight cancelled so she had to go this monday instead. First we planned to go to Andover from saturday to monday afternoon because of the marathon, but since the meeting rescheduled we went home sunday night. Because of her meeting I had to work the whole monday. If it wasn't for that I am totally sure I would have been at the marathon. Terese and Madde texted me earlier and asked if I wanted to go with them since both of them were off that day, but I told them I was working. Otherwise we would have gone there. A marathon is a great event! It's pretty famous in Boston too, you can see signs on the street on copley square about it.. However, Madde and Terese decided to go to Framingham instead.

I would have gone to see the marathon with the kids later during the day if they wouldn't have said "oh, what is that to see - people running?" in the car on our way to plaster fun time. So I decided not to. Julia went with her kids.

 

Mirea and I were down in my room wrapping presents for Charlie's birthday when Julia texted me and asked if I was downtown or had heard the explosions. I thought she was kidding and ment the gun shooting when the first running finished the race so I texted her back "no, haven't heard anything, but fun for you if you did". If I only had known. I though she was making a big deal of it and called it explosion and not gunshot because it was so loud.

When Lori came home I still knew nothing. She asked something, I don't remember what and Mirea and I told her about Julia's text. We were joking about it, cause neither of us could ever imagine what it actually ment. Lori looked at me, kind of seriously but not too obvious, and said "we can talk about that later". That face scared me. That was when I realized something had happend.

I had some pizza with the family for dinner and right after that I went to pick up Julia for going to Sweet Tarts. I had the radio on and heard some of it on the news on the way to her, but when she came she told me everything.

 

I am not a very emotional person, but this really affected me. Boston is like my new home, this happend on the streets were I usually walk, where me and my friends were last week. Copley etc is the center of Boston - this is where I spend New Years Eve. I just can't believe it! And the fact that I would have gone in to town to see the race - what if I did?! I would probably want to go to the end of it, I would probably go to a place I knew - like Copley Square. I know one girl from training school that went to see the marathon. She was standing right before it ended, but they had booked a table at Joe's so they had to leave a few minutes earlier. Ten to be exact. What if she and her friends would have stayed there just a couple of minutes longer!! This is like a scary story and I am so happy non of my friends were there.

 Hello,

 

I just got home from Andover with the family. I had not been at the house for months so I figured it was time to go with them now. My friends were in Washington D.C so I had no special plans anyway. First we were going saturdaymorning til monday afternoon but since Lori's meeting in D.C rescheduled we had to leave sunday afternoon instead, even better for me - cause I have all my stuff at home so.. But it felt good to go with them this time and I know the kids appreciated it. You could tell they were happy about it and they kept huging me all the time saying they were happy I was joining them. We left about 10-11am saturday morning. It takes about 2 hours to get there. We played car-games - finding blue cars etc.

When we got there Mirea and I crocheted in the closet for awhile, we had a war with stuffed animals (all three of us) which was really fun, Lori made good food and that night we watched "Back to the future". The kids, especially Arno, was huging me all the time when we were sitting on the couch. He is the cutest kid in the world. He didn't let go of me until we got home. We had such a cozy time. The movie wasn't very good, but ok.

The kids had kind of taking over my bed in our room so I took Mirea's instead. Interesting to sleep in a bunkbed - it's very noisy. haha! The next morning I woke up when Arno was moving around above me. The next second his head was showing from the top bed. He's so cute!

When everybody, except Mirea, had woken up I went downstairs to see what they did. Arno was watching TV and I sat down next to him to read my book. He crept close to me and kissed me all the time.

Lori made a very good breakfast with eggs and french toast with bacon on the side. Almost like "fattiga riddare". It was awesume! I had another stuffed animal-war with the kids.

 

Time passed very fast and it was already time to go home. Arno begged me to sit back in the car with him.. ofc!

 

Here you have some pictures from our activities with stuffed animals:

 

Here I am, in front of my computer as usual...

Charlie is playing music on the next floor (his office is right above me and you hear everything) even though it's 10pm. He plays good music so I don't really mind as long as it's not too late or early which it can be sometimes. Last week he stayed up working to 11.30pm and got up at 6am in the morning. Ofcourse I couldn't sleep then - I can even hear when he moves his chair.... -.- but that doesn't happen very often, so that's good. Now he is listening to the XX - islands, which is a song I like too ;)

I just came home from dinner with my friends. We ate thai food in a restaurant close to Terese - it was good, but not the best I've tried. I shared with Julia and that was totally enough. They always give you sooo much at these places...

Today I had a good day with the kids - Arno and I played baseball, which was incredible fun! I really want to go to a real baseball-place to play without be afraid of breaking a window. They have a court in Cold Spring Park. Hope we can go there som time! We laughed a lot and I love my kids, as usual. We have so much fun together and I am so thankful when I hear stories from my friends what their kids do and don't. My kids are the best, without a doubt!

 

Yesterday I was kind of upset and feeling low. I have promised myself that I am allowed to watch "Nikita" when I feel homesick or unhappy with my life here so I did. I didn't feel that bad, but I figured that was pretty much the worst in weeks and who knows when I will watch Nikita otherwise?! haha. I don't feel bad very often.

I skyped with Sofie today and that always makes me happy! :) You are such a good friend, I hope you know that. I also spoke to mom which felt good too, it's so nice to just talk about regular things so the distance doesn't feel that far!

 

I did my workout so well today, goldstar! And I also decided that I will go to Andover with the family this weekend. It feels good to do that when my friends are in Washington having fun without me ;) I will bring my crocheting stuff, my book, the little computer and some magasines and hope that'll be enough. We'll stay there from saturday morning until monday afternoon.Yup, the kids have April-vacation so next week will be a little bit different. Hopefully I won't have to work much at all, but we'll see. So if you want to skype, next week would be awesume! I am excited. I got a mail from Ida, which also makes me happy. I realized I was smiling all the time when I read it, she is just so kind - all the way in to her heart.

 

Afterall, I am happy about my life here. I hope I will read this when I get older and miss my life here - I will have a reason to! xoxo

 

 I have now been in the states for almost 8 months. I have been aware of gaining weight all the time. When I first came here I heard stories about aupairs who gained 17kg etc but now when I am here I know that could be reality, but is not very unlikely, atleast not for me. So far, 3kg, and I am proud of myself. First of all, the food culture is completely different and junk food is pretty much the casual food here. It's normal to eat frech fries several times a week and have dessert after every meal. Second of all, when you go to another country for a short time (I count one year as short compared to living her permanent) you want to try new things. Julia's theory is that we gain the most the first 6 months and then it will stay at the same weight, but I don't know. We have this year, this is the year of my life, and I want to make it a good one. YOLO! 

I have to admit that it's kind of scary to see aupairs I haven't seen in a long time - how some of them have gotten so much bigger! Julia have two german girls in her LCC group (which one I usually join, too) and I was chocked when I saw them. And today when we had the surpriseparty for Emelie I saw some girls I haven't seen in a long time, and they were different too, it was so obvious. That scares me, but I try to keep myself in good shape and eat healthy food so I can eat frozen yogurt and other stuff.

 

It makes me really sad that people seems to be obsessed with my weight - there are thousands of questions you can ask me about my life and you choose to comment my weight?! Really people?!

I don't know if you think it's funny when you say something like that, or if you consider yourselves slim compared to me, but you should know that my weight is my business and I would prefer to handle it my way - without your comments.

I am happy with my life here and if weight is the price for that, I am happy to pay it :)

Thank you, Arno, for being such an awesume host-child!!

 

I don't really like these kinds of events were I don't know everybody, but this was so much fun!!

I am glad I went, it was great to meet old friends and the new ones too :)

 

 

Yup, the little hippo turned out to be a present for Emelie!

I was very surprised that she was so happy for him! She was amazed and even saved the paper from the present. She told everybody several times how good and creative I am. I am glad she liked it :)

Yeah, spring feelings in my window!!

 

We went to Beacon Hill, the rich quarters in Boston. It looks very "England" here.

Yum!!

We made garlic bread as an appetizer and baked potato with sour cream/ham "sauce".

It was so good Terese said she planned to do it again this comming week!

Then we watched P.S I Love you and compared our swedish accents. It sounds so funny when Terese tries to speak in "småländska".. haha! We laughed a lot about Tarzan when Terese call him "Taschan".

I am glad we're having fun!

Some reasons why I am so happy right now:

 

• New cellphone (slide to the side, yey)
• Wonderful weather, feels like summer
• I have done my crochetingprojects so well and it is so fun
• Yesterday Julia, Terese and I watched Titanic (the movie made me sad but it's still a beautiful movie)
• I am listening to loud, good music in my headphones which always makes me happy
• I am so happy I have good friends here
• I love to spend weekends alone in the house
• Lori told me she thought I did a good job not being homesick like other girls usually get, score!
• I am about to bake multigrain bread from IKEA, for the first time in my life
• My parents will be here soon
• I can start to make plans for my travelmonth with Julia soon
• I still have another 5 months left in the states
• Like my family and life here generally

 I had to drive Mirea to dance so I left pretty early, but they had a picnic outside.

I am glad it worked out so well, so hopefully we can spend more time together since the kids seemed to enjoy it!

Later that day I finished my DJ Kalle (picture will come soon) and I had a nice little chat with Lori while I was crocheting and she took care of some stuff for the online calendar. It felt so good just to sit there and talk about things. I told her about the concerts I plan to go to and we talked a little bit about my parents comming.

My phone is broken so we also decided that we would go to AT&T the comming day to get a new one.

Later that night I went out to Panera Bread with Julia. They were having familydinner with salad and tuna so I skipped it. Felt good to hang out with Julia a normal day. We don't do that a lot anymore..

Friday I slept in, because Lori went with Arno to "Family And Friends Reading Time". I skyped with Sofie, which is always fun - we always have a lot to talk about no matter what! Then Lori and I went to the cellphone store. I got to pick one out (hooray) so I choosed a red one LG that you slide to the side instead of up as on the other one. They said this phone was good for texting and Lori looked at me and said "yup, that's what you need!" haha. It felt really great! Again, Loria and I had a really good talk in the car and it felt great to spend some time together. They will leave pretty early tonight and I will have Julia and Terese over to watch P.S I love you. So much fun. I love Fridays!!!

This wednesday Julia and I took care of our social security number. We should have done that a long time ago, but now we have finally done it. After that, we went to Dunkin' Donuts for a well deserved donut. I had boston cream, which is almost as an "pariserbulle" but it's chocolate on top instead. Yum!

They really liked it, they were so grateful for the chocolate, we'll see about the sewing kit.

Later that day when we sat in the car it was quiet. Then Mirea suddenly said "Oh, Vickis, I love you. I am sooo sad that you are leaving!". She said in a way that I knew she ment every word she said, it truely ment a lot to me. And I am sad I am leaving too. I don't want to leave them and my life here!

 

Reunion after some weeks apart!

 

 

Trinity Church!

 

We had dinner at an indian restaurant, I had only appetizer which was completely enough. Chicken in a tomato sauce and with a big, fluffy white bread. It was spicy but good. When we took the T home it was dark.