railroad park and parker

Hey Al! I must say that you are very quickly getting the hang of this 'ol blog thing. Great post by the way....I was a little nervous seeing you on a frozen lake, but it didn't look like you were going to break any ice, so I guess it's ok. (miles looked super cute in his sweater, too.) I don't know if I would be as brave though! I'm starting to wonder if the weather will shape up for our visit in May though...I have a feeling that it might be a little colder than I'm hoping. We'll see though. As for the "Fika" thing you guys do...that's pretty cool and funny that Anders decided to change it! I hope they are doing well. Jenny is probably getting huge by now! I can't remember what she's having, but do tell them that if they have that baby before I get there...I will baby sit free of charge:)

Anyway...I did my own homework for you. If you guys do get to come to B'ham in the fall, then I definitely want to take you to this place...it's one of my favorite parks in Birmingham. It's called Railroad Park, not that original, but well-suited because it's right next to the down town railroad station. It spans about 4 blocks, and is an explosion of green space in the middle of a concrete jungle. I love it...especially in the afternoon when the sun is setting and the weather is nice like it was this weekend. About 70 degrees, no clouds in the sky. (I'm sorry, I know I'm talking about warm weather again, but no swimsuits were involved this time.) Anyway...it was a great reprise to the otherwise busy Saturday.

Here's a couple pictures of the buildings surrounding the park:

A couple of me and sam.

right as the sun was going down.....

And I have to show you this picture of my other favorite "thing" right now. It's Parker Brown. He's about 14 months old now and Jon and Melissa say he's walking all over the place. We skyped them last weekend so we could see him in action since we missed it during Christmas and it was crazy....I miss him so much and hope to see him soon!

On the home front...the inspection went 95% ok. There turns out to be a small portion of the laundry room addition in the basement that has Chinese drywall in it. (google chinese drywall and you will understand why this is a problem.) We will have to get that removed asap when we close. But other than a few aesthetical issues that we'll have to repair over time, everything else looked good considering that's the house is over 50 years old. I'm super motivated to get rid of the not-so-cute blue backspash in the kitchen. more on that later!

love you!

Whit

frozen lakes and fika

I'm glad you got the RSVP! And I can't wait until yall get here. It seems a little surreal to me too. I've thought a lot about things to do and things I want to show you, but it's just hard to imagine you all actually being here. I've also tried to imagine walking around with so many people at one time. Someone suggested I carry around a sign like the leader of a Chinese tour group. It's an idea.




As for my homework I did go to one of my favorite places in Stockholm this weekend. It's called Norr Mälarstrand and leads to Stadshuset(City Hall) and it's a beautiful walk along the water with a great view. Right now, however, the water along the walking path has frozen almost entirely...to the point where this weekend there were more people walking on the frozen ice than on the path. I wasn't even a little bit comfortable with the idea of walking out onto frozen water, but after a lot of coaxing Björn got me out there. So that's a picture of me and Miles on the frozen lake...


After that we met Anders, Jenny, and Michel for something called "fika". It's a very Swedish word they use to describes taking an afternoon coffee break with friends. This one was a little different though, because Jenny informed Anders that after their baby is born he's going to have to make up for the 9 months she couldn't drink by being her designated driver. So he's taking advantage of the time he has left, and arranged and "ölfika"= beer instead of coffee break. I have to say I like this new idea for fika. It was a good afternon:)




This time I'll leave you with a picture of the tuilps Björn got me for Valentine's Day...pretty, huh? Your cinnamon roll picture made me wish I could eat them as soon as I saw it. I'm pretty sure you should send me mom's recipe. Hope you had a good weekend Whitty...

Allie

RSVP

al...look what I got in the mail today!?! I was casually surprised by the very cute handwriting you have too. And then even more excited to see the Swedish postmark on the envelope! Very cute card, and I'll let this be our "official" RSVP. We are so looking forward to the trip in May it's not even funny. I was telling Dad the other day that it doesn't seem real yet because it's still a few months away and I haven't started packing yet. Maybe by then everything will start sinking in....I will say that every time I see a plane take off around here lately, I about break my neck/cause a wreck looking at it because I want to be on my way to see you so bad. I hope you won't mind me taking your couch for a few days until Sambo gets there:) I promise I'll help you clean, and do dishes for my keep. haha.

Anyway....I'd like to leave you with a lovely picture of Mom's home-made cinnamon rolls that I made for my bible study group last night. They were deelish. You should make some for bj sometime. Everyone thought they were pretty fabulous. Ok...gotta go meet the house inspector! I'm praying that everything turns out ok...and then I can show you my idea.

Love you... Whit

p.s. your weekend task from me is to post about one of your favorite places there, WITH pictures. Can't get enough of those right now:)

p.p.s. You probably know...but Mama had surgery this afternoon, so be thinking about her. You can call her in the hospital, room #617.

dear whit

Whit. I seriously can't believe you got me to start blogging.

And now that I am I'll have to warn you that if you mention 70 degrees, swimsuits, or laying out again I might have to jump off a bridge - and into the frozen water. That's because it's snowing as I write this and a few days ago it was not only below freezing it was below zero. So for the time being I'm going to pretend it's this cold everywhere to make it easier. So don't burst my bubble:)

I'm sorry you had a bad day, Whitty. I would have a serious chat with someone for you if I was there:) I love the idea that you thought to get beer despite the fact that you basically can't drink at all. I guess I'll have to try this Purple Haze one day.

This week has been a lot of Swedish class and then a lot of alone time with Miles the Dachshund since the Hubby is gone. I went to the library for the first time and got a library card. Exciting, I know. I decided I needed to find a book to read for Swedish practice, so I went on a search for "Twilight"(Don't make fun of me.) I couldn't find it and after asking for help I realized I would have never found it because they renamed it. In Swedish it's called "Om jag kunde drömma" = "If I could dream". So lame. I can't believe they replaced the cool short English titles with things like this. And it's the same for all of the books in the series, so something for me to forward to. One day I'll get you to read them...

I guess I better go walk Miles now, but I want some more house details and info on whatever the idea is that you want to run by me.

Love you.
Allie

debbie and some purple medicine

al. can i just say that it was one of those days. I mostly love work, but today was rough one, and it left me feeling like I wanted to peace out before I even got to my desk! So, sorry if I sound like Debbie Downer right now..... That brings me to this "purple medicine" I like called "PURPLE HAZE" which is a lovely Raspberry Wheat Brew if you've never had it. haha. You know it's a pretty bad day when I make a point to go and get some beer. I can't even remember the last time I even finished one, much less made a trip for a pack. ha!

Anyway. I'm doing a little better, but I sure do hope tomorrow goes better. We'll see. On the flip side, we've been having some very pleasant 70 degree days here for the last few days. I even slapped my swimsuit on last weekend at the Sam's parent's house and basked into the warmth of a pre-spring day. I actually got a little pink, and then felt like I was going to pass out for some reason, and decided to go inside and watch a movie (that's beside the point.) Anyway...it is suppose to rain tomorrow. Enough about the weather, even though I'm pretty sure it's still below freezing there, which is crazy. I hope you're not too lonely over there without your hubs this week. I know Miles can only say so much:) haha. Ok...more house details to come...and I have this idea I want to run by you.

xoxox

Whit

dear allie

Hehehe...surprise! Welcome to our blog together. I know we talked about this last year before you moved and it's taken me a long time to get my act together and throw one up, but better late than never, right? Don't be mad about our cute little picture on the top of the page....it's not the best of me either, but I think it's pretty darn cute of the both of us. Wait a second...what's that on your face? You must have been hiding some food behind that newspaper...haha. Now, I'll be sending you instructions pronto about how you work this thing. Lucky for you...I've done all the hard work of setting it up...now all you have to do is type a thing or two to me every once and a while, and I'll do the same for you.

Looking forward to seeing more of you...

love you~

Whit