December 31st, 2009

Time right now is 23.20 and we thought it would be nice to do one last update before the year is over. We've finished dinner, Tilde is sleeping and most of us are considering if bed is the better choice right now. New Years Eve is just not that important anymore... :)

The Christmas break has been really nice. Andreas' parents have been here for about 2.5 weeks now and will stay for another 1.5 weeks. They are really happy about getting to spend so much time with Tilde. But on the other hand, how can you not like a kid who sleeps well, laughs all the time and loves sauerkraut?

I (Andreas) would like to end the year in a very Swedish Christmas kind of way. I know it's not the right evening for it, but it still fits so well with most of the house asleep. See you in 2010...

Midvinternattens köld är hård,
stjärnorna gnistra och glimma.
Alla sova i enslig gård
djupt under midnattstimma.
Månen vandrar sin tysta ban,
snön lyser vit på fur och gran,
snön lyser vit på taken.
Endast tomten är vaken.

Står där så grå vid ladgårdsdörr,
grå mot den vita driva,
tittar, som många vintrar förr,
upp emot månens skiva,
tittar mot skogen, där gran och fur
drar kring gården sin dunkla mur,
grubblar, fast ej det lär båta,
över en underlig gåta.

För sin hand genom skägg och hår,
skakar huvud och hätta ---
"nej, den gåtan är alltför svår,
nej, jag gissar ej detta" ---
slår, som han plägar, inom kort
slika spörjande tankar bort,
går att ordna och pyssla,
går att sköta sin syssla.

Går till visthus och redskapshus,
känner på alla låsen ---
korna drömma vid månens ljus
sommardrömmar i båsen;
glömsk av sele och pisk och töm
Pålle i stallet har ock en dröm:
krubban han lutar över
fylls av doftande klöver; ---

Går till stängslet för lamm och får,
ser, hur de sova där inne;
går till hönsen, där tuppen står
stolt på sin högsta pinne;
Karo i hundbots halm mår gott,
vaknar och viftar svansen smått,
Karo sin tomte känner,
de äro gode vänner.

Tomten smyger sig sist att se
husbondfolket det kära,
länge och väl han märkt, att de
hålla hans flit i ära;
barnens kammar han sen på tå
nalkas att se de söta små,
ingen må det förtycka:
det är hans största lycka.

Så har han sett dem, far och son,
ren genom många leder
slumra som barn; men varifrån
kommo de väl hit neder?
Släkte följde på släkte snart,
blomstrade, åldrades, gick --- men vart?
Gåtan, som icke låter
gissa sig, kom så åter!

Tomten vandrar till ladans loft:
där har han bo och fäste
högt på skullen i höets doft,
nära vid svalans näste;
nu är väl svalans boning tom,
men till våren med blad och blom
kommer hon nog tillbaka,
följd av sin näpna maka.

Då har hon alltid att kvittra om
månget ett färdeminne,
intet likväl om gåtan, som
rör sig i tomtens sinne.
Genom en springa i ladans vägg
lyser månen på gubbens skägg,
strimman på skägget blänker,
tomten grubblar och tänker.

Tyst är skogen och nejden all,
livet där ute är fruset,
blott från fjärran av forsens fall
höres helt sakta bruset.
Tomten lyssnar och, halvt i dröm,
tycker sig höra tidens ström,
undrar, varthän den skall fara,
undrar, var källan må vara.

Midvinternattens köld är hård,
stjärnorna gnistra och glimma.
Alla sova i enslig gård
gott intill morgontimma.
Månen sänker sin tysta ban,
snön lyser vit på fur och gran,
snön lyser vit på taken.
Endast tomten är vaken.

December 25th, 2009 #2

Seems like Comcast fixed whatever issue there was with their network. Head over to the movie page and take a peak at some of the new stuff!

December 25th, 2009

We have a bunch of new movies and pictures, but we also have issues with our internet connection. It is slow as molasses right now, so large uploads are out of the question. Hopefully it will be fixed in a day or so, because we have some real treats waiting to be uploaded... :)

December 24th, 2009

This will be a very short update: Merry Christmas!!!

December 9th, 2009

Little Miss "Deer in headlights" wishes everybody a Merry Christmas!

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November 24th, 2009

This is gearing up to be a very nice Christmas. Andreas has already made the first batch of glögg, which turned out as good as last year. He has also made two small bottles of "snaps" (one lemon / orange, one currant) to be enjoyed during our Christmas meals. On top of that, Bill the Butcher can supply us with GOOD Christmas ham and we already have meat for the meatballs. Once Andreas' parents show up on December 14th, Christmas can start! :) But before there can be Christmas, Thanksgiving has to happen.. :)

Wish lists for Christmas have been updated.

November 16th, 2009

It's been an interesting week. Andreas busted a rib Tuesday and was more or less bed-bound for the first 2-3 days. It seems to be healing up now, so he is back on his feet, but still unable to do menial tasks such as changing diapers. Really annoying and it really threw our normal weekly schedule off track. In any case, we are hoping Andreas will be healed up enough so we can go to San Francisco on Friday for iSEC's 5 year anniversary.

Tilde keeps on rocking, but still hasn't mastered the crawling part of life. She is moving though, but it is more of a "scooch slowly forward while sitting on butt". You leave her for a minute and all of a sudden she has moved... at least... like... an inch or two... :) The rolling is faster, the other day Andreas had to stop her quest for the TV computer. Twice.

Oh, we've started putting up our Christmas wish lists on "the rest" page. Happy shopping! :)

October 28th, 2009

We know it has been more than a month since the last update, but we have good reason: Moving! It is now official, our house (condo) is sold. We got an offer, which we accepted,  within 9 days of putting it on the market and the deal closed last Friday. Since the house we were planning on buying turned out to be a dud, we are now living in a rented townhouse (here!) a bit further north. In retrospect, it could not have been better. We now have plenty of time to find a great house without the stress of selling our place.

Even though the last couple of weeks have been filled with moving, unpacking and buying new furniture at IKEA, we have managed to find some time to do more fun things as well. Two weekends ago we went pumpkin picking with the Olsens at "The south 47 farm". Andreas snapped a bunch of pictures that should make it to the photo page quite soon. The pumpkins survived for about a week, then they got gutted and carved. The empty, candle lit shells are now sitting on our front steps.. :)

Tilde is doing great and is growing by the minute. Seems like she is learning new skills on a daily basis. Right now it seems like she is just hours away from crawling. If she does, we'll make sure there is a video on the movie page the same day!

September 19th, 2009

Things here still very busy. Our house has been up for sale for slightly more than a week and there has been constant showings. Don't get us wrong: It's awesome that so many people are interested and want to see it. But at the same time, it is quite draining to have to leave the house all the time...

Just so you know, we do add movies and / or pictures once in a while without writing anything on the main (news) page. So even if this page is not updated, there might still be updates on other pages. Again, it's due to the being super busy part from above... :)

September 10th, 2009

We've been super busy over the last couple of weeks getting the house ready to sell. All the little projects that never got finished are now done and the house was put up for sale this morning. We'll see how it goes.. :)

Also, 4 new movies of Tilde on the movie page. Not sure anyone noticed, but she is turning ginger...

August 26th, 2009

Jalbum keeps on rocking, the second part of the pictures from the Sweden trip is now online. Check the picture page!

August 24th, 2009

As we said 2 days ago, the new layout will make sure we can upload pictures and movies more often. So guess what? A new picture album is uploaded on the picture page, using the Jalbum software. Hope you like the new layout. You'll also find 6 new movies on the movie page. As you can see, we had a blast in Sweden and Tilde was a huge hit.

More pictures will follow later. We will also add support for witty picture comments.

August 22nd, 2009

As you can see, the design of the page has changed a bit. The "Jojo" page is now the "La Famiglia" page, the movie page is now based on dynamic generation of HTML, and the main page has been extended to the bottom of the browser. This last change is to enable the use of a picture album software named Jalbum. Non geek-speak: New movies and pictures will hit the page more often since Andreas won't have to spend hours hand-coding the updates... :) The first Jalbum picture page will go live on the picture page in a few days, together with a real "La Famiglia" page.

Oh, btw. The Windows media player Active-X component sucks under Firefox. Movie playback works much better under IE (Internet Explorer).

August 7th, 2009

We made it safely back from our vacation in Sweden, but the trip was very, very long. Since SAS discontinued the route Seattle - Copenhagen, we had to fly through Chicago instead. Not doing that again. Are you listening SAS? You just lost a fairly faithful customer! Next time we'll fly British Airways through London or Iceland Air through Reykjavik. Iceland Air is by far the cheapest for trips between Seattle and Europe.

We have loads of pictures and movies from the trip, but for now you'll have to make do with just one movie from earlier today, just had to share it. Go check the movie page.. :)

July 10th, 2009

Guess who turned from her back to her stomach all by herself the other day! No. Not Christina. She has been able to do that for weeks. Tilde! It's amazing to watch her grow and acquire new skills. It's happening so fast right now, it is almost like you risk missing something if you don't keep a constant eye on her.. :) She is still sleeping really well and is mostly smiles when she is awake. We know we have been SO lucky with her... :)

Weather has turned back to beautiful again, with 23 degrees c at 9.45am and sunny skies. Andreas little vegetable and herb garden is growing like crazy. There is a big load of tomatoes on the tomato plants and we just harvested our first cucumber for the year. We really want a bigger yard now so we can get some fruit trees and more vegetables going.

Added a new link to Gårdsbutiksguiden from KRAV on "the rest" page. It's definitively worth taking a peek at if you're in Sweden.

July 6th, 2009

Apparently wonders can still happen! Go and take a peek at the picture page and you will know what we are talking about. That's right! Andreas has uploaded a new, small batch with pictures! As you can see from the pictures, Tilde is a super baby. She sleeps very well and when she is awake, she is almost always happy and full of smiles. We won the lottery with this one... :)

June 22nd, 2009

Just 4 new movies on the movie page.

June 14th, 2009

Ok, just to make things clear: Tilde is not expecting any presents while in Sweden. However. Mom and Dad kind of suspect there might be something from the the grandparents in the pipeline, so they just want to give some hints on what type of things she would appreciate. IF someone was planning to give her something, good suggestions would be:

June 8th, 2009

Time flies and it’s already June – what happened to April and May? Tilde is 2½ months old, and it seems since she was born we’ve been in some kind of time warp. Before we know it we’ll be sitting in rocking chairs at the retirement home.

What have we been up to lately? Well, a few weeks ago we went to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma together with Jesper and Dorde and the kids. It was a nice day, but we were a little disappointed as we thought the zoo would be much bigger. It’s also a bit hard to see all these magnificent animals in captivity. The dream would be to take Tilde to places where she can see animals in their own habitat. Meanwhile, Northwest Trek is a wildlife park much like Kolmarden in Sweden, which we hope to visit sometime this year.

During the Memorial Day weekend (when everyone had the Monday off) we rented a house in the Columbia Gorge, on the border of Washington and Oregon, together with the Olsen’s. “Our” house was located in Lyle, WA, about 20 minutes from Hood River, OR. It was quite a long drive to get there, but it was a beautiful one, and Tilde was so very good. She actually slept most of the way. The house itself was fantastic, clean and spacious with gorgeous views. We had a really good time exploring the area, and we also found a great winery just down the road!

Otherwise not much is new. The weather has been great and we’re enjoying spending time outside. Christina and Tilde have been very busy socially with various playgroups all over the place. Last weekend we spent most of the time at the Olsen’s house, where Andreas helped Jesper set up a fence in their backyard while Christina and Dorde did their best entertaining the kids. This Saturday we had Chri and Adrian over for dinner and a board game. Life is good and Tilde continues to be a wonderful baby (most of the time…).

One of these days Andreas will find the time to post some pictures. In the mean time there are some new movies! Enjoy!

May 18th, 2009

Just a new Tilde movie on the movie page.

May 10th, 2009

Almost one full month since the last update. What can we say? SOMEONE is making sure we have no spare time for things like keeping this page updated.

Tilde has been awesome this week! She has slept through the entire night for the last 7-8 nights. She is also starting to get much more interactive and is now smiling on purpose once in a while and follows us with her gaze. Very, very cool! Today she has spent the entire day being awake (except maybe 2-3 hours for short naps). She has been very happy and interactive, so it has been a great day.

Oh, there is a new Tilde movie on the movie page.

April 12th, 2009

After some bad news Friday morning, the weekend has slowly turned back to the better. Andreas' dad had another, small stroke early Friday, but he seems to get better fairly quickly. We are making all the preparations so we can leave for Sweden on short notice if we have to.

We have been keeping busy yesterday and today, probably to avoid thinking too much. Yesterday was spent shopping and getting papers ready so Tilde can get her passport without Andreas being present. Today Andreas replaced the UPS (battery backup), installed the new phones and upgraded all the software on the TV computer. Christina has been taking care of the house, kid and dog. We also found some time to prepare and eat a little Easter lunch.

There is a small batch of new pictures on the picture page and a new movie on the movie page. Enjoy!

April 2nd, 2009

Well, as you can see we've done a minor redesign of the page. The library page is now gone and replaced by a movie page. Our book recommendations from the library page can now be found on the rest page. This is just an effort to tailor the page a bit more towards the content most people actually seem to enjoy. :) Andreas will try to get some more movies and pictures up during the weekend.

It has been a very interesting and mostly good week. The beginning of the week was quite tough, with Tilde being fussy and having feeding frenzies at night. However, we quickly realized that she did not get enough food through breastfeeding only, so we are now supplementing with formula. She is now a very happy baby and sleeps quite well (3-4 hour stretches) during the night. We are working on increasing Christina's natural food supply and are hoping to be able to move away from the formula in a few weeks.

March 31st, 2009

Ok, here's another little movie with Tilde. Babies can be so easy to wake up, huh? :)

March 29th, 2009

Everyone with a newborn baby knows that sleep is a luxury. This leaves very small pockets of time where you can do other things, such as eating, cleaning, grocery shopping or updating the picture page on the homepage you run. So, this is a treat! There are five new pictures of Tilde on the picture page.

March 27th, 2009

Even though there is a mess of baby stuff and a lack of sleep, Andreas found some time to shoot a short little movie with Tilde. She is not on her best behavior, since she is telling dad that she wants food... Now... Enjoy!

March 26th, 2009 #2

First picture is here!

March 26th, 2009

At 9.47pm Tuesday March 24th, Tilde Elise Junestam was born at Evergreen Hospital. She was 53 centimeters tall and weighed 3380 grams. We are all doing well, except for being tired :) You'll find pictures here soon, stay tuned!

February 28th, 2009

It's almost March and we actually thought winter was over. Last weekend we had a couple of beautiful days with about 15 degrees centigrade and we even started some seeds early last week. Come Wednesday night and it started snowing... Weather is still crap but at least the snow is gone!

The house is currently filled with Swedes (more than usual). Christina's "second set of parents" are paying us a visit on their way down to a vacation in California. We've been trying to show them some of the sights in Seattle. We went to Pike Place and Seattle center today. 

We are so pathetic! We found another Swedish TV program to follow: Charter Hjältar.

February 9th, 2009

Seems like winter just doesn't want to give up this season. Yes, it is snowing. Again. It's supposed to freeze overnight, so I guess we can skate to work tomorrow morning.

This Sunday there was a surprise baby shower for Christina. Chri and Dorde had been planning and scheming for weeks now and it turned out very well! We managed to trick Christina into thinking she was going to dog training after getting her nails done. When Dorde brought her back to the house from the nail salon, everyone did the classical "surprise jump out from hiding". Christina had no idea.. :) All in all 8 people attended the "English Tea Party"-themed baby shower, even Andreas hung out for the scones (but he left in a hurry as soon as all the goodies were gone). Christina (actually, mostly Tilde) got a bunch of very nice gifts and there was even a bib for Andreas. It's pink and says "I love my daddy" on it. It might be too small for Andreas though.

We are feeling very grown up right now. There is a stroller in our garage. It's all put together and ready to go. All we need now is a car seat, furniture for the nursery, a "pack and play", diapers and a bigger house. Andreas' plan is to start drinking and move into the storage unit quite soon.

February 1st, 2009

We just bought a new ride and it is very sweet! It's very sturdy with good off road capabilities, black and beige upholstery, black trim, cup holders and so much more. On top of that, it has great gas mileage, could it be any better? Any ideas what it is? Want to take a peak? Well, click here!

With the baby on the way we had to rearrange the house a bit. The guestroom will now become a nursery instead. We rented a storage last weekend so we could get rid of a bunch of boxes with books and loads of seasonal things. So far we have filled up the Honda 2 times and the storage is still far from full. It's awesome! :)

We are planning to go to Sweden during the summer and stay for 3 weeks. As it looks right now, we'll leave the US around mid / end of July. We are really looking forward to spend a few weeks in summer Sweden! And, by the way, we found a grocery store where even we might buy some meat.. :) We will start adding stores, farms and markets (in both the US and Sweden) that we like to the links section.

By the way, it's Superbowl here today. It's one of the few sports broadcasts we both enjoy to watch and we'll therefore cut this update short... :)

January 4th, 2009

Man, are we disappointed?! Only a handful of guesses if the alien is a boy or a girl, and on top of that: Most guesses were wrong! If you don't want to know if we are getting a boy or a girl, you should stop reading right about now. If you want to know, take the first letter from the second row on this page, add the last character from the next page... Just kidding, it's a girl! Ever since we found out, Andreas has been busy mounting shotgun racks all over the house. Her first boyfriend will have a blast... :)

Our 2 week vacation is almost over and we have done NOTHING! Well, nothing except spending some time with friends, shopping for some new baby furniture and a stroller, and watching Jojo and Simba play in the snow (which is gone now). It has been very nice and relaxing just hanging out at home without any appointments that had to be kept. Actually, we did have a few, but most of those got cancelled thanks to the snow. Seattle really grinds to a halt when there is snow on the ground. Pathetic... :)

We are really looking forward to moving now. Trying to fit a baby in a house which already feels a bit small is hard, especially since keeping the kid in the backyard apparently is illegal. Seems like the housing market here in Seattle is starting to find a bottom now, so the move should happen during 2009. With a bit of luck, it will all happen before the summer is over. The plan is to move a bit further out and get a bigger piece of land with a nice big house on it. McMansion, here we come!

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