Today was settling in day for A in school, he was tense and nervous but I think he got a teacher that will click with him. She seemed very sweet and enthousiastic. He got many new classmates but got to keep some from last year too.

When J heard that A was going to school she wanted to go too, tried to pack her school bag and said "juja school too". Im really looking forward to see how she does when its her turn on monday :)

Last night the kids slept at their grandparents, we try that once a month my husband and I get an evening to ourselves and since last time  the kids were fine with sleeping there we tried again. Yesterday morning I took the kids shopping while R slept (he had a night flight) and then we had a relaxed afternoon before R took the kids to his parents. A had complained a bit about tummy ache but we thought it would be moslty cause he was slightly worried about sleeping away from home so we decided to try, if he kept complaining we would just go and take them home again.

This time we chose to eat at home and relax infront of tv instead of cinema. It was really nice! We skipped the diet and had tacos and we saw "She´s out of my league", entertaining but predictable movie.

This morning we slept til 8 which was great. Prepared picnic and tried to find ear protection for the kids, we were heading off for the Airshow. Picked up the kids and spent the afternoon at the airport. Had picnic there (but unfortunately R took the wrong boxes and our lunch was still at home in fridge so we had to buy from there, no diet food available so twice this weekend we "cheated", not good at all) and saw lots of planes and helicopters, both kids were having a blast. Really nice....until we had to go home. As always here in Malta its like a free for all and it took us 45 minutes just to leave the parking area! Sigh! The drive home that normally takes 15, max 20 min took us 1½ hours. Exhausted we came home, ate, got the kids in bed and prepared A´s school stuff since tomorrow school starts again! Im looking forward to seeing what teacher he will get and classmates too (here they change both every year)

Will take an early night tonight, back is aching and my body is screaming for rest. Might sleep a bit in the sofa while R is watching football like in the "good old days".

Today the clouds are thick in the sky, its actually more a brown day, I think there is lots of Zahara sand in them. R took the kids to a playground and to ride some scooter so I got some time to myself after my month alone in Sweden. Leftovers from yesterday will be our lunch so I have absolutely nothing that I HAVE to do before they come home. Sooooo nice! Hurrah for husbands like that!

If wednesday was "dressfinding day" yesterday became "shoefinding day" since I needed shoes for the new dress. Dress being blueish/grey I wanted grey shoes with it. Shop assistant said silver shoes but I HATE gold and silver shoes so I refused. Having been to 2 shops with no luck I remembered where we had to go, a chain where I have bought all my other "wedding shoes" have their main shop in Paola and so off we went. Shoes are good value for money, you dont have to overspend on shoes you only wear a few times but they look good. Here I found my shoes, higher heel than I had planned (cant walk in high heels!) and a little more silvery than I had imagined but Im happy.

After lunch we all had a siesta since we had planned to go deliver the wedding present in the evening. Its a maltese tradition to go visit the bride and groom at their parents houses on set dates to give the present and get a drink, a silly souvenir and a small chat. After the siesta we went to Sliema, I had to find a bra with plastic back and R took the kids to a playground. Home again I did some exercise, dinner and off to the cousin. My mother in law had planned to go with their present today (friday) but R had heard it on her voice that she had wanted to be there when we were there and surprise surprise, didnt they come yesterday too? Sigh.... When the snacks came out there were peanuts and obviously she couldnt keep quiet, she quickly told me to make sure the kids didnt take any. WTF?!!?!?! Why cant she leave those things up to me/us? Is it surprising that I feel that she doesnt think Im a good mother if she thinks I cant judge what the kids can eat? When someone brings in something to eat it comes naturally to check what there is to see that there isnt something that they cant handle or dont like for example, its not her worry! Fine if im not around, but let me handle things when im there! I get this flashes of rage when she comments like that and yesterday I told her a bit sharp that they eat peanuts at home and can handle it". Gaaaaahhhhh!

My mother in law is a whole chapter to herself, and since I just started translating to english you wouldnt know what it has been like but she is a worried person, she keeps telling me what to do with the kids because she is worried they cant handle climbing on or off the chair, walking the stairs or whatever. This makes me really angry, I think because it feels like she doesnt trust my abilities as a mother, and what could be worse than beging questioned as a mother? Lately things have been better, I think the kids getting older has helped but sometimes she makes me sooo angry.

The evening finished nicely with my husbands brother and his girlfriend coming over to watch football (the brother) and chat (the girlfriend).

First weekend of october my husbands cousin is getting married. It has been a bit on and off weather we would go. Children are not normally invited to maltese weddings but this cousin is close with my husband and when his older brother got married he wanted us to be able to come so the kids were invited too. This is what happens since my family is not here and my husbands family is obviously going to the wedding themselves, we dont have a baby sitter. I refuse to leave the kids with someone they dont know, and it doesnt make sense to have someone coming in to babysit them just for the sake of keeping sitter and kids familiar when we only need it once, maybe twice a year. With this cousin though it was not clear until the end but last monday he called up my husband to tell him that of course the kids should come so that I could go too. Here is where dress panic set in...I have only been to one wedding post pregnancies (and all the extra weight) and to this one I was pregnant again so dress couldnt be re used. We went to 2 places in the morning and another 3 in the afternoon before I could make up my mind. Since the plan is to loose more weight I didnt want to overspend on a dress I will most probably only wear once (unless i can alter it later on) whilst if I could wear it to other weddings in the future i´d be willing to spend more. In the end I picked a dress from the first shop costing me 52 eur, not bad for a long evening gown. It was not perfect but it will do.

Tuesday was Independence day in Malta, we "celebrated" by going to the beach. Met a friend and her kids there, it was very nice and we really dont meet up often enough. I feel that the beachseason is soon over, as soon as schools start again there just isnt time anymore. We had lunch at parents in law so they could see the kids again and while me and R took a siesta she played with the kids. Niiiiice!

It was so nice to wake up in my own bed! Kids did sleep without trouble in the same room last night but at some point had R (my husband) gone to get J, she was sobbing a bit and was totally confused standing on the floor in the middle of the room. (In this house it is the father that wakes up at night, I sleep like a rock!) As always A came in in the morning too, cosy! Today we have been food shopping (tomorrow is a public holiday and "everywhere" will be closed) and also gone for a swim in the afternoon. I also managed to fit in some exercise before dinner so today I can feel good about myself. This morning scale showed 1 more kilo down since before Sweden and that is like a miracle! I always gain weight when on holiday.

Right now R is reading for the kids, in maltese for the first time in a month. Tonight I think we will just be relaxed, maybe watch an episode of Bones and talk a bit about a possible job opportunity for R.

When the plane took off today A (our son) was glued to the window, waving and calling out "Goodbye Sweden, I love you, I will come back another day". So sweet and sad.....

I did have to leave some stuff behind but I feel I found a decent solution. Had some trouble with the hand luggage since we had to spend the night at the airport and I had planned to check in my luggages in the evening. Solved that by bringing another bag, I had so much to carry but I managed. The kids behaved rather well but I still got really really tired. Further to that I woke up 2 hours before the alarm (at 3.38am) and couldnt sleep again not matter how much I tried. This afternoon I managed to unpack one of the suitcases but not the other one, I guess i´ll do it tomorrow...or another day :D


Kids are in their beds now, J (our daughter) is going to sleep in her big bed, not her cot, in the kids shared bedroom for the first time. Time will tell if it works out and if she is ready for it.

Anyone reading in english, if you want to comment, klick "Kommentera" then fill in name and email address (it wont show) and your comment. The words are not so different...

My suitcase is packed and on the kitchenfloor next to the biiig bag is a huge pile of clothes that wont fit....what to do? :O

Im going to try to do this english part of my blog again, tried it before but found that I didnt have time, hoping for better luck this time around. Might try to translate a few of the last posts from this trip to sweden.

Apart from that, to get you up to date with me and to be able to jump into the blog here is a short resumé.

Im a Swedish national living in Malta with my maltese husband and two kids. A soon to be 4 year old son and a 2 year old daughter. My husband is a pilot and Im a full time mum, loving it! Im struggling with some 15 kilos extra weight since my pregnancies. Im coeliac and need to stay on a strict glutenfree diet. About one and a half years ago I was diagnosed with Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) which basically means that my immune system is attacking my liver and because of that Im taking steriods and azathioprine, both with rather bad and scary side affects. Steroids making me bloated and swollen apart from always hungry and azathioprine which increases the risks of cancer, specifically skin cancer which doesnt feel good at all considering I live under the buring Mediterranean sun. Since the diagnosis life has been up and down, I dont answer to the medication as the doctor expected and my liver results are still high. Mentally its very tough on me and some days I just feel like crying, thinking I wont see my kids grow up. The blog is mainly about my life, kids growing up, AIH and the stuggle to loose weight.

Tonight is our second last night and it feels unreal. In one way its going to be really nice to come back to home and my husband and get som order to things again with routines, school etc but I feel really sad about leaving. A whole month is a long time but both me and the kids love it here. Another reason why I think I find it harder is that my mum is working both tomorrow and saturday and that blows when you want to try to milk the last out of our time here.

A childhood friend came over for tea and a chat tonight, it was very relaxing to spend some time together without kids (mine were asleep and hers was at home with his father). Its so much easter to talk when there are no kids around to ask for your attention.

Today I went to the hairdresser as always when Im in Sweden. And as always am I very pleased with the result.

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