Bye Bye summer.... hello to our second year in Stockholm

We have been in our new apartment now for almost three months.  I've joined SATs, one of the most sited gyms in the city, I finally found a few grocery stores that live up to my picky standards. Things are going well.  The boys are very happy with their teachers, classmates, and school in general.  We can't complain.... especially since we live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  The picture below was taken by my very talented friend Heidi.  I love it so much,  I'm going to frame it and hang it in my home.

The months leading up to October, have been unusually warm for Stockholm.  No complaining from me though.  We have been able to sit outside in cafes, wear open toe shoes, and spend time soaking up the sun.  The boys have been able to play soccer in the warm temperatures, and the parents have been able to watch without freezing.  The best part is that even the fraternities and sororities have been able to have their "hazing" outside of my window on the weekends.  Can you hear my sarcasm.  

Year two has been much easier than year one.  Last year at this time, I had no idea where to find Halloween costumes or candy.  I never made cookies or cakes, because I had no idea where to buy the ingredients, or what some of them looked like on the shelves.  I was afraid to take classes at the gym, because of the language barrier.  I didn't feel comfortable doing many things on my own.  I always felt like everyone around me knew that I was not Swedish.  This year, things are a lot different.  I feel like this is home, and that I do belong here.  I've been taking various classes at the gym, even though I don't understand a word of what the instructor is saying. A few instructors are really cool and they teach a portion of the class in english.  Speaking of not understudying the language.... the other day I was riding bus 2 to an appointment and the bus stopped, the driver said a few words, and the few people that were on the bus with me all exited.  Since I knew we weren't at my stop yet, I stayed on and continued to wait.  A few minutes later he spoke again.  He must've seen my completely clueless face, because he immediately switched to english, told me that the bus was broken and that I had to get on the bus behind us.  A year ago this would have freaked me out…. now I just laugh.

Smith feels right at home skateboarding to school

and riding around the city

Year 2 has also brought new friends to the Payne family.  With so many new families moving into SIS, we have all met many new people and we are blessed to have more friends.  Steve and I are especially lucky to have met more Swedish friends, as the boys' soccer teams have given us the opportunity to get to know so many wonderful people.  Emile and Catherine invited us to their home a month back for an amazing dinner.  The boys all played and the adults enjoyed a night together of drinks, great food, and many laughs.  Since then, we've gone out with them a few more times and we are so happy to have met another great family.  Our last evening out we went to PA&Co and then had drinks at the Grand Hotel.  I love that the locals always know the best places to go... and they can speak the language, so getting reservations is much easier.  Speaking of reservations, the Swedes make dinner reservations weeks in advance, therefore, leaving no tables available for the rest of us that more  last minute.  Europeans as a whole seem to know their vacation plans at least a year in advance too.  This caused a bit of a shock to us when we tried to book our December travels and realized that nothing was left.  We did manage to snag a cabin outside of Venice for Christmas though.  I’m so excited to spend Christmas hiking, skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling and visiting the rustic village for the holidays.  We will also spend a few days in Venice.  I’m more than excited about this.  Italy has been the country on the top of my list to visit.

Steve's travel hasn't been too crazy so far, but when he does leave Stockholm, life gets super crazy for mommy.  He is usually able to take the boys to and from soccer as I am the home base for boys coming and going, eating dinner, and going to sleep.  We have a great system down.  But, when he travels, it becomes a lot of rushing here and there, late nights, homework being crammed in, and very tired boys the next day.  On daddy's last trip, we decided to have breakfast for dinner cooked by my three little monkeys.  They did an amazing job.  I should let them do this more often.

Jake flipping the french toast

Smith scrambling eggs

Chase scrambling eggs

Jake's french toast were delicious

Smith makes a mean egg

The finished product

Many of you remember that I was training for the Stockholm half marathon in September.  Sometime during the summer, I hurt my knee and I haven’t been able to run again.  Well, the marathon came and went, and unfortunately, I was not healed in time.  So, my dream of running a marathon in another country, is not going to come true in 2014.

The boys, however, have been running all over Stockholm.  Their school has an annual Run Day, where every class is scheduled at a park around the city, and all the students are required to complete a certain amount of kilometers, depending on their age.  I love to volunteer on this day.  It's so wonderful to see these students exercising and learning about heart health, and the importance of running and moving their body's everyday.  

Smith and his classmates running a 3K

Smith waving as he runs by Chase's class

Chase's class finishing strong

Chase was sure to tell everyone that he came in 1st place

Jake's class ran a 5K

Jake might be taking after his mom when it comes to running.  He seems to really enjoy it and even joined the school run club after school on Tuesdays.  We are running our first 10K together next month in the Stockholm Tunnel Run.  Jake is also taking after his Aunt Dee Dee, Aunt April and cousin Zach with his musical talents.  He has joined the Orff Ensemble after school on Mondays where he plays the drums.  Smitty has joined Capoeira, which is a Brazilian art form that combines fight, rhythm, movement and flexibility.  It's pretty amazing to watch.  He does this on Mondays after school with a bunch of his buddies and loves it.

At the end of September I flew to Florida to visit Barb, my mother in law.  My sister Diane came with me to New Smyrna Beach where the three of us had a great time together shopping, eating, and bike riding.  Another highlight of the weekend was dinner at the Tyminski's.  Jimmy made the famous John Payne roast. I love Jimmy's family, they have always been so special to us and to John and Barb as well.

 After three days with Barb, we headed back to South Florida, where I spent the rest of the trip with my sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles.  We had game night at Dees, family dinner at Aunt Joan's and shopping with my sisters and nieces.  I was also able to see my nephew, Michael, as we enjoyed some delicious matzo ball soup together.   And of course spending time with Chloe is always an added bonus.

me and Blake after a night of shopping

Dee and I squeezed in a tennis match, a Barre class, and also paddle boarding at sunrise.

Dee, Ashley and I

Beautiful sunrise 

My time in Florida went fast, but I was also ready to fly home and see my boys.  Steve, of course, held down the fort with no problem at all.  Thanks to my friends here in Stockholm for pitching in and helping out when needed, the week went really well for all of us.  The big hugs and kisses on the day I returned were priceless!   I wonder if they gave me all these hugs and kisses because they missed me, or because of all the American goodies I brought home.

A week went by and Chase woke up with an ear ache.  After being up all night in pain, I knew it was time to see a doctor.  I called a few doctors and even was referred to an ENT, but none of them had an appointment for him.  Thanks to my friend Sandy, I learned of a private doctor that makes house calls.  After five minutes of her being in my home, she saw Chase's ear, realized that he had a horrible ear infection, prescribed him an antibiotic, and within a week, he was back to old Chasey.  Money talks even here in Sweden.  The medical system is something I will never get used to.  I will say it over and over.... America, we have a medical system that takes care of sick people.  Yes, it needs tweaking, but there's no place like America for our medical needs.

Off my soap box... and on to better things.  The fifth grade held it's annual International Dinner and performance a few weeks back.  Words can't describe the amazing food that was served.  Each family was responsible to make a popular dish from their home country.  Since 5th grade alone represents 19 different countries, we were able to sample some delicious food.  I love Indian food, so the homemade Indian dishes were my favorite.  Jake insisted that we make chocolate chip cookies to represent America.

You wouldn't believe how quickly they flew off the plate.  Not because mine were so fabulous, but because chocolate chip cookies don't exist here in Sweden.

The performance was fantastic.  Jake had been practicing his songs for months.  They were popular songs from today's music, along with classics from my days in school. The kids ran the show from the MCing, the entertainment, to every last song.  Jake, and a group of his friends wrote and acted out a poem about soccer.   Each student wore clothes to represent their home country.

The MC's for the evening

That week the SIS walking club dedicated our walk to breast cancer awareness.  We raised money and had a great time together.  Here's a picture of the participants.  Finding a cure for this disease is and always will be close to my heart.  I not only lost my mom to it, but one of our dear friends is fighting the battle right now.

 The Payne family weekends are always full of soccer (football here in Europe).  I use those words interchangeably depending on who I'm speaking to.  One weekend Jake's team won the entire tournament.  They played so well and there were some definite nail biters throughout the tourney.  Steve and I have made some wonderful friends on his team, so the downtime (and there's a lot of it) throughout those weekends are actually fun as we all sit, chat, laugh, and drink a lot of coffee (I wish I liked coffee, but tea does the job).  Here are some pictures of the boys after winning the trophy.

Smitty was an honorary member that weekend

Smith had his own tourney the following weekend where he scored six goals total and his team came home with the first place trophy as well.

His team was also able to meet one of the Swedish national team players when he made an appearance at their team party. (The man in the red shirt)

Not only are my boys athletes, but they are chefs as well.  They all love helping me cook, but Smith enjoys it the most.  We decided to cook my mom's famous chicken dish (chicken with wine, mushrooms and ham).  It turned out to be a great meal, but even better because I felt my mom was smiling down on my kitchen that day.

a bit of olive oil in the pan

Jake dicing the mushrooms

Smith cutting the chicken

Jake cooking the chicken

Pouring the cooked chicken into the stone for baking

The finished product

It even met the approval of my sick baby.....

Speaking of food, I've been hearing about these companies that deliver meals to your door, and I've been meaning to look into them.  At one of the tournaments, MatKomfort was promoting and offering specials for anyone that signed up for a trial.  After speaking to the owner for a while, we decided to give it a try.  The reasons I liked this company were:

1. All ingredients were grown and raised on his farm.  It's very close to organic....and has zero preservatives
2. All ingredients are delivered to your door every Sunday.  They provide four meals a week.  
3. I don't have to shop for the food, but I'm still able to cook it.  Nothing is cooked ahead of time except the sauces they provide with each meal.  
4. This has added variety to our meals at night.  I was in a cooking rut, making the same things over and over.
5. The cost is a bit less than what I would pay if I shopped for everything at the stores in the city.
6. I like this one the best.... the portions are a bit smaller than what I'm used to preparing.  This has forced us to eat less.  The amazing result, we are still completely satisfied, proving to both Steve and I, that we overeat at our meals.  

Here are pictures of some of the meals we've eaten so far.  The kids love them!

This is an example of how the food is delivered on Sundays

Cucumber and peppers over rice noodles with sunflower seeds and chicken

Salmon with glass noodles, carrots and peppers

chicken with potatoes and salad (cooking chicken in a pan with celery takes the overbearing chicken flavor out of the meal)

Steak with Hollandaise sauce with potatoes

smoked salmon with tabbouleh salad

baked macaroni with pork (tasted like bacon)

There was no school on Tuesday due to parent/teacher conferences.  Since our conferences were at 1:00 and 1:30 we were able to have a  lazy morning.  As we were getting dressed, I read that their was an armed robbery and potential bomb threat a few blocks from the school.  Immediately following the news report, came an email from the school canceling all remaining conferences.  Outside of our windows we could hear sirens and see police cars racing up and down the streets.  All trains were shut down, it was a rare day here in Stockholm.  An hour or so later, they caught one of the suspects and the city began functioning normally again. The school reopened,  conferences were back on, and life resumed for all of us.  It's a good thing because I had three little boys with long, shaggy hair that desperately needed haircuts.  

Dinner with my boys post haircuts

Friday night we celebrated Claudette's birthday with a girls night out of dinner and dancing.  It's funny how we plan our outfits here.   They are based largely by the weather and how much walking we'll be doing.  I chose a lower heel that evening because I had a bit of a walk.  What I didn't realize is that it's common to not only check your coat at the coat check, but also your outdoor shoes.  I could have worn comfy shoes to walk and then slipped on my heels after arriving.... and I wouldn't have had  to worry about carrying them around all night.  Live and learn here in Sweden.  Regardless of my shoes, we had a great night out.

While I was out having a great time, Steve was home with six boys as Jake somehow convinced daddy to have a sleepover.

They were a great group and I even woke up the next morning and made them a good ol American breakfast.  

 The next morning, Steve and Smith surprised me with the green chair that I've been eyeing for weeks.  Smith going to make a great husband one day, just like his daddy. He knew exactly where to take Steve so they could surprise me.

I'm finally getting around to decorating the foyer area of my apartment. There's a lot more to do.. but it's a good start.
 

Fall is definitely in the air.  I love this season because of it's beauty, but also because of the smells, the holidays, and the coziness of the dark, cold evenings.  The famous ghost on Drottingatan has made his appearance.  

Along with the lights and decorations in Gamla Stan.  Because dark is setting in earlier and earlier, it's very common for the candles to be burning around the city, along with decorated streets.

In honor of Halloween, I baked cookies for the school parties.  What I didn't realize is that cutting out 60 sugar cookies is extremely time consuming.  This non baking mom learned that lesson the hard way.  Poor Steve came in from work to a very frantic wife who was trying to cook dinner, help with homework, and bake cookies at the same time.  Being the good guy that he is, he sat down and cut out cookies with me.  Here's a picture of him in his work clothes helping with the monster cookies.

cookie cutting

 Oh, and what he didn't realize at this moment is that Smith and Jake were about to ask him to make them zombie costumes for dress up day the following morning.   The parties were all a success and the monster cookies were a huge hit.

Chase's Pre-K class

The morning of the parties, Out and About Club met at the Medieval Museum for a tour.  I wish I would've known about this when John and Sandi were here, they would have loved it.  The original wall built back in 1015 is what the entire museum is built around.  The stories were fascinating as we learned about the bathroom habits of the people back then.  Apparently they used their windows as toilets and just let it fall out of the windows whenever they felt the need.  But, they had to make sure they let the walkers below know that it was coming, because there was a  heavy fine if their wasn't a warning.  Punishment for crimes was very interesting as well.  We learned so much during that one hour tour, that I couldn't begin to do it justice in this blog.  I did manage to snap a few pictures.

The original wall

small doorway

original bones of this 20 something male

Jarl Birger they molded his face based on his skeleton that was dug up

Well, this brings me to the end of my blog.  Mid week was a half day where the boys and I decided to go for a nice warm cup of hot chocolate.  We ran into Lori on the street who then called Cody to meet  up with us.  The boys had a great time chatting over some cocoa.  We were not so thrilled when the couple next to us were lip locked for the entire 30 minutes.  The boys couldn't stop staring, which made for a a very interesting fika.

I always enjoy sharing my ridiculous stories at the end of each blog so here goes....
I was exiting the Gamla Stan train station when a man was walking toward me.  We did the typical "dance" when you are each trying to move out of the other's way.  As I started to smile, because we were both moving the same way each time, he did not think it was as funny.  He put both hands on my shoulders and pushed me out of the way, and then yelled at me in swedish as he was walking way.    Never a dull moment.....

Well, I'm actually finishing this is up in the Amsterdam airport as we are waiting to board our flight to New York.  We will be in NY for four days, Pennsylvania for a day, and D.C. for the weekend.

Happy Halloween everyone!!!