Three month update. And snow?

It has been a full 3 months since my last post on this blog, meaning THREE months since we moved back to the US from Stockholm. So much has changed! And is changing!

But before any real update, happy halloween. We spent our Halloween Saturday night (when most people shoulda been dressed up and drunk) watching movies under piles of quilts, since the heat in our new building hasn't turned on yet. And we had a frickin' BLIZZARD on the East Coast in October, making it way too cold to do anything but make things in the oven and then leave it on and open for extended stretches. We checked: it was 15c degrees in Stockholm; 6c in Washington D.C.

Anyway, Stu & I spent the first nearly two months of our return in Virginia, living with family, catching up with friends, applying to jobs, eating awesome and cheap American food, and watching a whole lotta crappy morning news shows (pathetic, I know, but I didn't realize how much I missed the Today show and Good Morning America.)  There was nasty DC August heat, a hurricane or two, an earthquake, a tornado, and now, a snow storm in October.

We moved back in my 7th month of pregnancy, so the slow pace of transition was a really, really good one for me. Finally got our shipment of stuff from Sweden almost a month later than planned, but all intact and with few major problems. But by late September, we still didn't want to *unpack* our Sweden boxes without knowing where at least one job would be. We'd both had a few job interviews but no real bites, and my belly kept getting bigger, which made life a little more stressful since we didn't quite feel settled yet and the range of possible scenarios when Baby arrived was sooooooo wide. Oh, and diapers are expensive.

But within literally 12 hours of each other, Stu and I both got AWESOME job offers in DC, which we both accepted embarrassingly quickly ("Really? You want to employ me? Ohmygodyesyesyes!" It was seriously like a marriage proposal for me. At 8 months pregnant, a shotgun wedding?) Within a week, we bought a car and rented and moved up to an apartment in Arlington, and basically did a complete 180 from the "back-up" plans we had put in place.

Dressed up and gigantic!

Stu has been at his new job at a big consulting firm here in DC for the last few weeks, and so far likes it a lot. I am incredibly excited to start my new position as an art reference librarian with the Smithsonian (the job I have been working towards for years now.)  However, I don't know *when* that start date will be, since I have been sitting around waiting for my federal background check to process for the last month, and I have exactly 3 weeks until my due date. Best case scenario: I start November 7, work for 2 weeks, then pop out a healthy baby boy in a quick and pain-free delivery, just in time for Thanksgiving. Buuuut, I am full-term and could literally go into labor at any time, and the government is frickin' slow. So I won't be surprised if I have this baby the day I get told I can start work, then immediately take maternity leave until late January (and the quick & pain-free delivery was probably never in the cards.)

So here we are, in our last few weeks (or days?!?) of being a family of two, still figuring out the day-to-day grind. I had to find a new doctor near our new place, which is really tough when you are on Medicaid and 34 weeks pregnant and in the DC area. And the doctor aside, finding day care in this area is damn near impossible: 10-12 month waiting lists for centers that charge $1900/month tuition for an infant. Almost a year? "Tuition" for a 3-month old?! $1900?!?  Needless to say, we were completely ruined by the prospect of Sweden's system of health and child care.

The nursery in process.

And we miss a lot of aspects of our life in Stockholm, the city, our friends there, our awesome apartment. It isn't completely gone, though. I will probably never wear shoes in my house again. We still speak in Swenglish to each other, though I'd say the most oft used phrase is "Vad fan gör du?" by Stu to me, and rightly so, since pregnant women do a lot of strange things ;). We made kardemummakaka last night in an attempt to warm up our frigid apartment. We've gone to an event or two at the House of Sweden. And I have spent more money than I would like to admit at Ikea recently.

But we definitely think, especially with a little clarity from these last 3 months, that moving back to the US was the absolute best possible choice for us. And also that our time in Stockholm was so, so, so worth it. The travels and the experiences, and even the education (though I complained a whole lot about mine!), were life-changing, and I can honestly say we are in a better place in our lives than we would have been without those two years in Sweden.

So that is a little of what we have been up to since leaving Sverige. Aside from a picture or two to announce our new little Swedish meatball when he comes, I probably won't post much more here, and would rather keep it as a kind of time capsule of our lagom life in Stockholm. 

Blocket and shopping

I am a fan!

Of course, I was/am a big fan of Craigslist, and Blocket is essentially the Swedish equivalent (without the scuzzy personal ads and job listings.) Despite that it is notoriously flakey, I have bought a ton of furniture and odds 'n ends through Craigslist in DC, collected random crap for our wedding, found my apartment, listed the condo for sale. When moving to Sweden, we sold a third of our furniture and posted an announcement for a yard sale through CL. Soooooo glad Sweden has something similar!

We made our first purchase through Blocket yesterday. We bought a microwave (Swedish word of the day: microvågsugn.)
It was super easy, and from a nice Swedish dad-type in our neighborhood, who coincidentally, and oddly, has two daughters going to college in the US on golf scholarships (in Oklahoma & Louisiana, even more odd.)

When I mentioned it was on our list of things-to-buy to some of the int'l kids in Stu's program, we got pegged as typical Americans, unable to live without our beloved microwave. Why give us a hard time for something that makes our lives easier? First use: I melted butter in it yesterday for the pancakes we ate for dinner. Call me nuts, but I'm just excited for microwave popcorn, the ability to heat up leftovers, and to make a cup of tea without having to futz with the gas stove.

(FYI, we have a gas stove/oven. I have never, ever had a gas stove, always electric, so it may be basic for some, but learning to turn on the burners has been a small challenge for me.)

And it was cheap! Nearly brand new and quite nice, for 350:-. That's less than 50 bucks. It fits really nicely in our kitchen:



So shopping. I am embarrassed to admit this, but Stu & I spent 6.5 hours in Ikea this week (SIX and a HALF!) working on outfitting our new place a little better. A large chunk of that was custom-designing a set of PAX armoirs for me, with the color, size, drawers, rods and shoe racks I want/need.
And we picked a couch! Not one that I loved, but one that was 1) a decent price, and on sale! 2) long enough for us both to cuddle up to some TV on and 3) a bäddsoffa, so we could have guests. The only reason they didn't come home with us Friday was because Ikea closes at 8pm (!) in Sweden, and we didn't have enough time to check out and arrange for delivery. Because, like I said, we spent almost 7 hours there (with fika and dinner thrown in.) So I hopped online to order the same items for delivery. But they were more expensive. I guess the sale price was in-store only. Then I did the mental exchange rate math, and got freaked out by the prices. Its cheap, but I want it cheaper. Hence Blocket.

So next on the Blocket purchase list: a couch (pull-out for all you people who SAY you are going to visit us) and some armoir-type thing. Because the reason I spent so much time custom designing the wardrobes is because we have a coat closet & a linen closet, and that is it (Stu's mom warned us, having lived in Germany, we'd be lucky to have a closet at all!) My clothes are crumpled in bags on the floor of our bedroom.
We are going to see 2 couches and a set of wardrobes today, in fact, in an hour. I'll post our thoughts later. But E should appreciate that one couch is red. Stu is very excited.

When it rains, it pours

One of the biggest sources of anxiety with moving (for me, anyway) has been finding a decent, affordable place to live in Sthlm.
We got ourselves on at least one student housing queue, but since nearly everybody goes on to higher education in Sweden (its free, so, duh) students can get on waiting lists for apartments when they turn 16. So I'm competing with people who have been waiting YEARS for a place.

I've found the Swedish equivalent to Craigslist (blocket.se), which of course, has proven just as flaky as our Craigslist, and I had contacted several people about their listings (in English) without a peep in response.

We decided to shell out for the pay service, with the thinking that people have to pay for posting their apartments, so they are pretty serious about getting good tenants. For the Stockholm area, Bostad Direkt charges 695 SEK (which came out of my bank account at $92) and after a little juggling to get access, we can now contact owners. And I have. And I've already heard back, from several of them! And these are nice apts in super nice neighborhoods...Vasastan, Kungsholmen, Sodermalm, etc. For about what we pay in DC, if not slightly less.

But Stu also got a lead from his school on a great-sounding place about .2km from his campus, so we should get pictures and further details tomorrow. And because we have a Swedish-speaking university employee vouching for us, its a more solid possibility. Fingers crossed.

Another hurdle we're kind of, half-way over. At least I feel like we're getting somewhere, and won't land on August 4 with no where to go. So if we get housing wrapped up in the next few weeks, all I have to do is move! Oh, wait...

Yesterday, I weeded, organized and packed my jewelry. No small feat. This morning I organized pens. Who knew that between us, we had so many writing instruments. I think I should be moving a little faster.