Still Holding in there.....

Not much to report from West Lafayette. Still no baby as we approach t-5 days. Lynne is holding in great. Of course she is ready to have the pregnancy all over with, it's pretty uncomfortable and it's hard for her to sleep. The current 90F weather doesn't help much. Stay tuned....

Anja is finally perking up again. It has been a long week. I do not wish hand, foot and mouth on anybody. She still has many ulcers in and around her mouth but her mood and general level of energy is getting back to normal.

Pat, Lynne's Mum arrives on Saturday. Have not really thought about this much since our minds are elsewhere but we are now looking forward to her arrival.

That's it for now, hope you are all having a reasonable week.

Aiden's Birthday

Yesterday was my brother's birthday. Hope you had a great day Aiden

Paul, Lynne and Anja.

 

Belated Birthday Greetings Triona

It did not take me long to miss somebodies birthday despite my earlier best wishes.

Triona turned over another year this week. Hopefully you enjoyed it.

Our regards

Paul, Lynne & Anja

 

A Tough Week

We had two patients this week.

I caught a bout of food poisoning or something on Tuesday since I spent most of that night being very intimate with the toilet. I'll leave the rest to your imagination. I'm really only starting to feel better today.

Anja has also been quite ill this week. It started off with a fever. After a few days she broke out in these sores around her mouth. She also has inflamed gums. I called the health clinic and they believe it to be a viral infection called Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Sounds terrible I know but quite common in children. There is no treatment and it normally runs it's course in a week or so. It's different from Foot and Mouth Disease which animals get.

I think Lindsay was tired this evening. Normally Anja is relatively easy to look after. This week, however, with the fever and constant need for attention due to her feeling poorly she has been hard work. Thanks Lindsay, you deserve a break this weekend (Mike ! :)) Lynne will also be glad of Anja's improving condition since she may get some sleep. Perhaps I should also take some of my own advice and let Lynne take it easy.

Other than all of this, the week has been OK. More later.

 

New Car has Arrived

Our new car arrived today. It was quite exciting taking the keys for the first time. Did go for a little spin down to Purdue to see Lynne at lunch time. It's a nice drive and thus far we are happy with it. Lets hope it continues.

 

Almost Complete on a New Car

We are still holding on and waiting for the new arrival. 10 days to go!! Nobody needs to really worry, I'll be sharing our news with all as soon as anything happens!

Almost closed today on a new car. Plan to do so tomorrow. We are going to buy a new Subaru Outback 2.5 XT. Check it out!!. This is the 2008 turbo limited edition outback, so we are looking forward to getting it. Not really sure how a 2008 can hit the dealers in July but they do in this country.

Other than this news all is going well. We had Bruno from Hangman Hill over to dinner last night since he was in town to teach on a course being run at Purdue.

I guess we should really deem our Baby Gender Poll closed. Over 60% of you out there think it will be a boy....have to wait and see I guess. Will be posting more updates soon....

Hope you are all having a great week.

Anja Locked in Her New Room

Mid-week update.

Anja locked herself in her new room this week. The door has a simple push button lock and despite our efforts at covering it, she managed to lock herself in. It was all good fun, primarily since we can easily open it with a screwdriver from the outside. We let her sweat it a little first. Lindsay was on hand with the camera. She also did this on our holiday which was a little more frustrating since opening it was not as straight forward. It's times like these that a stern answer of "No" to straight plea to open the door is not very funny indeed!!

Lindsay was ill today. If you are reading this, hope you are feeling better soon.

 

Exam Results

Another short update....

Congratulations to both my brothers Davey and Clive, each passed educational hurdles this summer. Clive passed his exams which allows him to move to the next year in his degree programme and Davey got his grade for his MBA. Passed with distinction.

Well done to you both, I know how much it means to each of you and how much you both worked at achieving these successes.

Back to the Grind

Short post today. Just let you all know that we all survived our first day back at work. Hate that first day after a holiday.

We all got over the weekend OK, exciting news from this weekend was that Anja has now fully moved into her new "Big Girl" room. How exciting is that?

Hope you are all doing well, had a nice weekend and are getting through the week.

More later.....

Holidays at Raccoon Lake, Indiana

With only a few weeks to go before the baby arrives (three) and with the daytime heat in this part of the world in the mid to upper 80's, we opted for a relatively close to home vacation this year. We stayed at a lake house on Raccoon Lake which put us approximately one hour from Home hospital maternity unit if so required. As it turns out it was not needed (thankfully) and we had a very relaxing week. We actually stayed at Liz and Phil Krause's lake house on Raccoon who were kind enough to let us stay there for the week. I actually posted a picture of the house on this site last year just after they bought it.

We had a great week which for the most part centered around relaxation. Ever find yourself more tired after a holiday than before - not us this year. We read, cooked nice food, watched movies, sat and watched the lake and the world go by for a week without TV, email, internet, telephones or newspapers. It was nice!!

We are now back and had a hectic day (of course) getting things sorted out. Moving beds, washing clothes, shopping, yikes we could have a baby at any time now!!

 

I'm a Little Tinkerbell

 

Getting used to the Water

Anja was a little nervous around water at first but was reasonably confident soon enough!

 

At the Beach

Anja probably best enjoyed her time at the beach with the time honoured tradition of trying to fill the bucket with all the sand from the beach!!

 

Holiday Started with a Bang!

Since Anja has just completed her potty training, we have to stop frequently to "Go Potty". This actually became a sort of game that goes like this: I want to go Pee Pee (or something similar) and we stop at the side of the road somewhere and wait for a little while for her to let us know that indeed she actually did not wish to go at all. Oh the joys!! looking back now it is funny but not at the time!!

Anyhow, I was sitting there watching the action on one such stop. No prizes for guessing what happened next in the picture below and why there were lots of tears!!

 

We are off for a While

There will be no posts for the coming days, we are heading out of town for a few days. We'll be back on Friday evening so look forward to some updates next weekend.

Have a great week everybody!!

Paul, Lynne, Anja and (4 weeks to go!!)

Arndt was here this Weekend

As I described earlier, we had Arndt with us this weekend. He lives in Germany but he is here in the US for a few weeks attending a course. We know him from our days in Sweden, he worked with me for 18 months. Anyhow, he arrived Saturday afternoon and left again this afternoon. We took a stroll down to the Purdue campus, prepared dinner and had a few beers last night. It was great to get caught up with each others lives and to reminisce a little.

Thanks for making the effort to come see us Arndt, we enjoyed having you.

 

We Put Arndt to Work

As soon as he arrived, he had to start preparing dinner with us!!

 

Keep an Eye on this - My Brother Davey's Latest Adventure

I thought I'd plug my brother Davey's latest adventure. He and a couple of his thirty something college buddies/friends have just decided to get active again with a 50 km hike and bike ride over a mountain in Scotland. It's all to raise money for charity so it's admirable, just wondering how much this has to do with aging bodies on a mission to show how young they still are!!

Seriously though, I think it's great. Check out their blog describing this, training and all and consider donating if you believe it's a worthy cause. I will also add a permanent link to this site for the coming months.

This is the same brother who incidentally is going to take off round the world. He cannot update his blog on this topic since nobody at his work has any idea yet of this plan ::))

We're on Holiday

Today was officially the first day of our summer holidays. Lynne had to finalise a few work items this morning but we have essentially kicked into holiday mode. Today we traveled north to Greene's Amish Furniture shop to buy some stuff for Anja's new bedroom. We bought our dining room table there and really liked it. The trip was successful, purchased two bookcases, a dresser and a bedside table, all in white. Ka-ching, ka-ching !!

Before we take off for a few days, we are actually having a visitor from Germany tomorrow. Arndt, a good friend from when we were in Sweden will arrive for the night. I actually posted a picture of him and myself from when we caught up with each other in December 2005. Here it is, I'm sure I'll have another by Sunday evening.

I'll fill you all in on our weeks plans later in the weekend, for now hope you all have a relaxing weekend!

Paul

 

Our Girls are Getting Big

How time flies. Here is a picture of Anja and Ruby, it seem like only yesterday that each of them were born!!

 

I Simply Love Liquorice

Anja gets a piece of liquorice if she lets us know that she wishes to use the toilet. She loves it!!

(I keep lobbying for a treat each time I use the facilities - I'm thinking beer, but I'm not convincing anybody!)

 

Happy 4th July

Today we have one of those rare days off in America. It's Independance Day or 4th of July as it's more commonly known. To all here in the US, have an enjoyable day, to all others hope your day is going well.

We are having a relaxing day thus far, looking at furniture on-line for Anja's new bedroom (she is making way for her sibling). Traditioanlly, not much is done on the 4th of July. Normally have some friends over or visit friends to have a BBQ and of course fireworks in the evening.


 

We Expect Life from Davey and Sam's Blog Again Soon

Davey and Sam have not posted much recently, but let me forewarn everybody that this will be the blog place to visit pretty soon. I'm certainly banking on some top blogging, even now with the build up....

They are selling their house in the UK, everything must go, and taking off around the world. Yes the ultimate lock up shop and taking off.

So we all plead that this be documented properly from the start..and that includes the flurry of activity that is ongoing now to try getting the house sold...Everybody agree??

Take us on a whirl round the world...

Quiet Weekend that Håkan Left

Having a relatively quiet weekend here in West Lafayette, lots of recreational activities. My weekend started off good with a spring clean of the garage but it soon turned to more fun stuff. Walking in the woods, going to the park (think swings and slides), an afternoon nap was had by all yesterday (yes us all), spent an hour at the swimming pool, had dinner and finally went for ice-cream with some friends. This is a big summer tradition in the US. There are ice-cream restaurants everywhere.

The other news from the weekend thus far was that Håkan returned to Sweden yesterday. It was sad for us, we have known him for almost 10 years we have being living close to him all that time. We will miss his very distinctive character, the ups and the downs and all other things Håkan (those of you who know him certainly understand this). We wish him well in the next stage of his life. We enjoyed having you around all those years Håkan.

It's Sunday morning and it's time to get going with the second half of the weekend.....weather is beautiful outside. Sunny today with a high temp of 80F(26C).