Things we'll miss in the US...

...Baseball.

The consequences of moving on...

In the interest of thinning out our moving-to-Stockholm pile, I went through my shoe closet today. 13 or 14 pairs made it to the donate pile! And that's only about a third of what I own! Its too hard to part with all of them. I am screwed.

Unemployment: Day 1

I'm still in pjs, watching bad daytime tv, and drinking a lot of coffee. Not a bad first day of being laid off. I have a big list, but I figure this first day, I should just not worry about any of that. Well, Im doing a load of laundry, so that counts for something.

We are moving to Stockholm in August, so I had intended to leave my nonprofit job in the middle of July, at the same time we go to closing on our condo & become homeless. But Friday, I was told my position had been eliminated as of May 31, 2009, and I could choose to work out the next two weeks or just be done (that was a no-brainer choice!) I stuck out the day, unlike the other 3 people who also got pink-slipped.
I got a tiny severance package, too, and am eligible for unemployment, so considering I was leaving anyway, we're not in a terrible situation. It was definitely a big surprise, but all in all, not a bad surprise. I feel a little like a statistic of the current economy. And I liked my co-workers, so it would have been nice to have a few weeks of happy goodbyes, rather than pitiful "I'm so sorry"s crammed into a few hours.

The Livet Just Lagom name is kind of Swenglish...a poor translation of Life, just right. "Lagom" in Swedish is almost untranslatable, but kind of means moderation or in the middle, but also just the right amount...that sweet spot where everything is just right. Stu & I love the word, and since we've been planning this whole Swedish adventure, its come in to play a lot! Like me getting laid off. I got an unexpected extra 2 months of vacation to prepare for the move, most of which I'll still be making some money.

I should probably get dressed now...I don't want to forget how, now that I'm living a life of leisure!

Here we are now!

Test! Test! ...Is this thing on?

So. We're very excited to start our new blog to update our friends, family, and people we meet along the way.

What's up: we're moving to Stockholm to study! It's a great opportunity, and Anne's always wanted to go check out the land of her roots since her mother's side is Swedish. Mine father's side is Norwegian, so really, it's right that we go live in Scandinavia... especially now, before we birth barns of our own.

We've been cramming in Swedish with Rosetta Stone. I know they say Sweden's 80-90% bilingual in English, but that's no excuse! We want to learn the language of the country we'll be living in. I've also heard that it's tough to get language practice in when the Swedes you meet practice their English on you! But at the very least we'll be able to pronounce people's names and place names correctly.

So, that's the start to our Swedish adventure. We'll travel around Europe together as well, so more on those notes later.

First post...I thought we could use some inspiration. How's a giant waving Swedish flag?