Now those are some cakes

Left cake is the 3 layer vanilla, the right is the 3 layer chocolate! :) I'm actually quite impressed with myself on my first real cake decorating venture. They look pretty amateur, but I think they will suffice! And as you know now, "grattis" means "congratulations".

Your Swedish thing of the day is some Swedish deer! These were in our front yard. As you can tell from the porch rail and the clothes hanger. They guys scare me so often too, they run away really fast everytime I walk out the door! I think somebody is running to attack me!
The Swedish word of the day is "tårta" which is "cake" and is pronounced "torta". You can also use "kaka" which is a smaller cake and do me, used more often for cookies. Plus, I don't like this word, for obvious reasons. ;)

which one, which one.

Help me!

#1

#2 ( I think I like this one best, in black and white.)

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

I have to decide which of these pictures to have as our framed picture. I CANNOT decide. These 8 are our top 8 choices and they come in a little album. But which one to get as the large one, we can't decide! I love these pictures, and I'm SO happy with them! And it was a lot of fun having our first professional pictures taken together!

Today I am busy baking 6 layers of cake to make 2, 3 layer cakes! One chocolate and one vanilla. YUM. Tara's early birthday party is this Friday, and for some reason I agreed to make the cakes! I'm crazy! Haha!

This weekend is Fredrik's farmor's (dad's mom) 80th birthday, so we are getting together with his dads side of the family, who I've never met before! I'm excited! And Sunday is Mother's Day here in Sweden. So we have a busy busy weekend coming up! Nice to be busy, takes the day away quicker untill my last day of work! Then I have one and a half monthes of freedom with Fredrik! We are trying really hard to schedule a trip to Germany! It's so exciting, and if we can pull it off, it would just top this amazing year off perfectly! Cross your fingers for us! :)

The Swedish thing of the day is this beautiful tree. Spring really is here, and I love it! Saturday we went to the Botaniska Trädgården (Botanical Garden). It was amazing! Much bigger than I thought it was! Lots of different gardens and even a herbal smelling garden. We went on a hike to a very huge hill that over looked the city. We are definitely going back soon. Kansas has many gorgeous tree's, bushes and flowers, but this tree literally took my breath away. The picture doesn't even do it justice!The Swedish word of the day is "bild" which means "picture" and "bilder" means "pictures".

grattis! 100 posts!

Today is 100 posts. I don't have anything significant to talk about but here are some pictures.

This was taken at 10:30 last night. Yea...it's getting harder and harder to sleep. The sun is coming up around 5 but it's already starting to get light out around 3:30-4.

This is a murder slug, and they are evil. Although, Fredrik told me yesterday you can boil them and eat them. I threw up in my mouth a little bit when he said that.

This is funny cause it looks like I'm a floating head going around kissing people in their sleep.

I posted a Swedish breakfast awhile ago, but this is an american breakfast. Maybe slightly modified with yogurt and a banana, but don't worry, there was a lot of butter and maple syrup on those pancakes!

This is my springtime, Swedish umbrella. I look like a fool carrying this around amongst all the black and dark blue umbrellas most Swedes carry, but I don't care!

If you know a sign says something important and pertains to you, doesn't it make you nervous if you don't understand it. Imagine seeing this. That's why I took a picture to bring it home to Fredrik and ask "what all does this say?" ;)

This is your Swedish thing of the day. This is Fredrik's favorite bread, ever. I don't know how he will survive without it in the US. But we might have to steal the recipe and learn to make it. He eats this at least twice a day. Breakfast and snacks. He loves it.

The Swedish word of the day is "vår" which means "spring" and is pronounced "voor". Spring is definitely and finally in the air here. I will post some pictures of nature soon because it's just breath taking here. I have a tree right outside my window with gorgeous white flowers all over it. It makes me happy. :)

Studenten

As I mentioned earlier, it is graduation time here in Sweden as well. They do it a bit different here This is Fredrik's cousin Therese. She is wearing a simple dress, with the traditional Swedish graduation hat. Looks like a sailors hat. And all that junk around her neck are gifts and flowers from her friends and family. Nice of them to give her all this stuff, huh? :)

Basically, the Swedish graduation is like ours, only with it's own twists and flare! They have a ceremony like ours, but it's a lot less formal. As you can see, no gowns, no square hats. Although the boys do wear a suit and tie and the girls wear a nice dress, which I think is usually white or mostly white.

After the "ceremony" they go to be greeted by friends and family, who adorn them with gifts and get their picture taken. After that they go around in taxis or cars and some schools rent huge dump trucks for all the students to go around together on holding signs and posters and screaming and shouting through the town. Sounds fun!

Each family makes their graduate a sign that has a picture of them when they were small (usually embarrassing), their name, the day and year they are graduating and which school they are graduating from (in Sweden you chose a school at 16, and you learn a vocation. i.e Fredrik chose to learn mostly about cars). The posters are really big and very sturdy and are on a stick, so they can carry them around. You have to go to a special place (like kinkos) and get it made. Fredrik still has his. He's so cute!

Then after the riding around they go home, much like we do. Have a party with your family and once you can get away from that party you go away with your friends and have a great night!

I like the way we do graduation, but this way also seems like a lot of fun! My brother and sister graduated from high school this weekend! How proud I am! Congrats Brad and Mikaela!

The Swedish thing of the day is some cheese. Haha. Sweden has the largest variety of cheeses. Even at the smallest store, they have a huge isle dedicated to cheese. It's so important. This

particular cheese went a little hard on the bottom so I was advised to cut it off and throw it away. But hey, why not take advantage and create a love message. Stupid me. This cheese is like the cheese you imagine a little mouse coming out of. It has holes and everything.

The Swedish word of the day is "grattis" which means "congratulations". You also use it on birthdays too. Congratulations on your birthday!

måndag.

Just another Monday. Nothing special, nothing new.

What's in my tummy:

A giant Dutch apple with peanut butter. Don't worry, I haven't TOTALLY forgot how to eat like an American.

What I'm listening to:

TRYING to listen to some Sia, but unfortunately Tara has a friend over and they won't stop whistling. This is Tara's new favorite thing and I can hardly stand it!

Drinking:

Not a whiskey sour, but this is pretty good in itself, Ramlösa mixed with Pomegranite smoothie style juice. Really yummy!

This is bubbly water with lots of different flavors. I like original, but sometimes I venture out and drink some jordgubb (strawberry).

Reading:

A Rice and Curry cookbook and writing down as many recipes as my little cook book can hold. I've really become interested in Indian cooking, and Fredrik and I certainly love to eat it, so why not learn to cook it!

Looking forward to:

This weekend. Helping Fredrik's parents at their cabin, getting ready to put a new addition on to the living room. Forecast looks promising, sun and warm temperatures.

On the table tonight:

Simple, make your own burritos. Complete with homemade tortillas, ground taco beef, cumin cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce and salsa.

Soon to be on the table:

Pesto basil jumbo shrimp with lemon parmesan linguini. Can't wait for this one! I think I'll save this one to make for Fredrik. :)

Feeling frustrated with:

Caitlin isn't done with school until June 15th. What a long time!

Feeling not frustrated with:

Spending a month and a half with no work, no commitments. With my honey, in the beautiful Swedish summer. Midsummer here we come!

The next few weeks are going to be quite a bore, just waiting and waiting for June 15th!

The Swedish thing of the day is the Swedish flag. Now I know my readers aren't dumb and surely know what the Swedish flag looks like. But this flag is really special to me. I don't know why, and anytime I see something with these colors, I want to buy it! Fredrik doesn't understand, but I have a weird obsession with Swedish souveniers. I love buying silly little Swedish things. Right now, they are getting ready for graduation and it's traditional to buy a small stuffed animal or other small toys that are Swedish colors, put it on a blue and yellow ribbon and put it around the graduating person's neck. So the graduate then, at the end of the day, has lots of silly, small, Swedish themed toys dangling from their neck. I will write a lot more about this later, because Swedish graduation is a really cool thing. And if I'm lucky, Fredrik might let me take some pictures of his graduation stuff to show you all! :)

The other day I was sitting in my little house with the window open, letting some clean, country air into the room, when I noticed something out of the corner or my eye. It was this bright, beautiful flag waving through a gap in the newly green trees. Just a small thing, but it made me smile. :)

The Swedish word of the day is "Du gamla, du fria" it means "you old, you free" and it's actually the Swedish National Anthem. It's actually a really nice sounding anthem. This is the version of Carola singing it. Carola is a really famous pop singer. She has been singing in television contests for many years and won the Eurovision Song Contest in the 90's. Du Gamla, Du Fria