Another update!

Seeing as I am trying to play catch-up, I thought I had better make another post.

About 2 weeks after we got here, Alice decided to be unwell! She woke up with tummy pains and then threw up, and threw up, and threw up, and threw up - you get the picture!! She didn't have a fever, but was in quite a lot of pain and wasn't well at all :(  I really didn't know what to do! Alessandro suggested we took her to the hospital, but I didn't think it really needed that! I just wasn't sure that it was that serious. But, by the end of the day, I told him that he needed to make the decision as I do worry about being over-protective of my kids and panicking too much!!!  He said that he thought it would be best, so off we went. We just thought that they would give her an anti-sickness tablet and we would go home - wrong!!! The other kids were fantastic and were happy to stay at home with Alessandro's Mum

At the hospital, they were very thorough. They took blood and urine samples, in between Alice throwing up (still!!!). They asked us how many times she had been sick, but we had lost count by then! By this time, she also had a very high fever and was not well at all. The staff were fantastic. Our nurse was wonderful and explained to Alice (in excellent English) everything that she was going to do when she took her blood as I had told her that Allie was phobic of blood and needles! She kept us updated regularly on how long the blood test results would be and making sure that we were all ok. Alessandro was a star too - I really don't know how I would have coped if he hadn't been there. I was getting really worried by this point and he was a great calming influence! Being in a hospital is bad enough, but being in one where you don't speak the language is evn harder, but all of the staff spoke English, and even those who weren't very confident made a fantastic effort for us.

After about 2 hours, the doctor came in. He had obviously learnt his English from an American as he had a very strong accent! Alice's blood test results had shown high white blood cell count, so she was trying to fight some kind of infection, but they weren't sure what as the tests they ahd done were negative. When he started touching ehr stmach and asking which side the pain started, I was getting worried as I knew he was checking for appendicitis, but fortunately, he said he didn't think that was it. But, they wanted to keep her in overnight to make sure it wasn't anything serious!

I had to ring Emily and Lucie to tell them and was really worried that Lucie would be upset about me staying in with Alice, but she was a star! I was so impressed with how grown up she was! So, once we were shown to our room on the children's ward, and we were settled in, Alessandro went home. He did offer to stay because he spoke Swedish, but we were fine with the staff making an effort. The nurse did come in to try to set up a drip, but they couldn't get a needle in Alice, so they gave up (not sure who she gets that issue from! lol!!)

Alice threw up again a couple more times in the night, but seemed a bit brighter in the morning, so they let her eat a sandwich and yoghurt for breakfast before sending us home. She only ate  few mouthfuls, but at least she kept it down!

I have to say how impressed I was with the Swedish hospital. They kept us informed every step of the way, coming in to check we were a ok, and once they decided we were going home, there was no hanging around, they were very very efficient. I don't like having to stay in hospital, but as far as hospital stays go, it was good.

Alice took a long time to recover and to get her appetite back. I don't think she ate a full meal for about 10 days, but she is fortunately better now, and back to her old self!

Just have to say something I found quite amusing! The Swedish word for hospital is sjukhus pronounced a bit like 'sick house' which did make me think how appropriate it was for Alice that day!!!

She will kill me for doing this, but here is a LO I did of her in hospital eating her breakfast!

 This is my new addiction! The LO was made using the most awesome app for my iphone! It is called Coolibah and is a digital scrapbooking app. There are lots of free kits available as well as some which you can buy but they are really cheap. The designers are fantastic and have made some beautiful kits!  I LOVE playing with it and have made loads of LOs.  

Here are a few more - nothing to do with Alice's stay in hospital though!!

 

Update Time!

Ok, so we have now been here for almost 6 weeks and I realise that I haven't updated recently, so thought I would try to get the last fee weeks updated in the next couple of posts!

I suppose I should start with the journey which I would love to say was uneventful, but it wasn't!!!  We left our house in England at 6.30am, on 11th September 2010. We were all up, showered, dressed and ready with our suitcases packed with enough things to last us for a couple of weeks as we weren't sure when our other things would arrive from England.

We arrived at Stanstead airport and checked in our suitcases and went to get a coffee and something to eat as we hadn't had breakfast! We thought we had left plenty of time to get through security and be ready for priority boarding! We said goodbye to Dad and went through to the queue for security which was much longer than we thought it woud be! There were a few tears as we said goodbye to Dad, not because we didn't want to go but because we knew it would be a couple of months before we saw him again - the longest we have ever been apart from him!

Emily was taking her laptop, so we knew that would beep the machines, but didn't think I would! I did! No problems, though and we all went through. Emily had made sure that she wasn't wearing neon nail varnish as that had set off the alarms when we had gone over before! (We had thought it was her braces on her teeth at first, but the security guard told us it was the nail varnish!)

However, what we weren't expecting was Alice's bag to set the alarm off. By this time, we were about half an hour from our boarding gate closing so I was not happy! And neither was Lucie as we had booked priority boarding to ensure that we could sit together and she was starting to panic! The security guards were really busy and it seemed like forever before they even started to go through Alice's bag! She had packed everything so well, wrapping her breakable things like her ds and ipod dockibng station in scarves etc, so they had to unwrap everything! Until they came to the culprit! The day before, she had told Lucie that she would have to put her body lotion into her suitcase as it wasn't allowed in her hand luggage. Unfortunately, she hadn't followed her own advise!!!!! If I wasn't so stressed, I guess I would have laughed, and I did later on, but not at the time!

By this point, we were 5 minutes from our boarding gate closing and, typically, we were the furthest boarding gate from security! I don't think I have ever run so fast! Alice and Lucie managed to keep up but Em was struggling and the others were worried that we would get on the plane and she wouldn't! I did reassure them that I wouldn't do that, but they still worried! We eventually got to our boarding gate and, guess what, they hadn't even started boarding! About 10 minutes after we got there, they then decided to change our boarding gate to one closer to security!!!!

So, all of the panic was for nothing!! We were second in the queue for prority boarding and eventually boarded the plane. We were all in need of a sit down and a drink, so I paid a fortune for a drink for each of us! At least the rush meant that Lucie didn't have time to get worked up about the flight!

Somehow, despite boarding the plane late, we still managed to get to Stockholm on time and were treated to the Ryanair fanfare which they play when one of their planes arrives on time!! Very cheesy but very funny too!

Once we got through passport control at the airport, Alessandro was there waiting for us and we then had an uneventful 5 hour car ride to our new home!

To saisfy your curiosity, here are a couple of photos of our new house. If you look carefully at the 1st one, you might be able to see Alessandro's Mum - she saw that I was taking a photo and so opened the kitchen door and waved as I took it!!!

How It All Began!

Lots of people have asked me about how we ended up moving out here to Sweden, so here is a fairly short account of what happened in the last year!!!!

Back in January, I met a lovely man called Alesssandro on the internet. He is Italian and lives in Sweden with his twin sons who are 12. I was very wary at first, having heard lots of horror stories about people who had met weirdos on the internet! But, I also have a friend who met her husband on the internet and they are very happily married now, so although I was very careful, I did take some calculated risks!

We chatted for hours every night on skype and for my birthday in March, he bought us plane tickets to fly out to Sweden for a holiday for 2 weeks at Easter which eneded up being almost 3 weeks because we got 'stranded' due to the volcano!! No complaints from us though!. A few of my friends and family were happy, but most were very concerned as they obviously hadn't met him! I did try to explain that after months of only talking every day, you do get to know people very well, but I can understand why they were concerned.

Anyway, it all went great! We got on better in real life than online and his boys are fab! With my girls being 13, 12 and 9 at the time, the boys slotted in great and they all got on like a house on fire. Alessandro used to be a professional skier and is now a coach, so we also got some free skiing lessons which was fantastic!

The problem we had was where we would go from there, with living so far away from each other, but by the end of the two weeks we had decided that it would be easier for us to move to Sweden as with him and his ex-wife having joint custody of the boys, there was no way that she would allow him to take the boys to England to live, and also, his mother lives with him, so she would need to move too which would be very difficult for her. My house was only just big enough for us, so there was no way we could fit another 4 people in, and he has a lovely big house.

So, the natural step was for us to move out to Sweden. The girls were all in stages of their education where a move wouldn't be a major problem and they were all 100% for moving too. My family weren't however! My Dad wrote me two letters saying that we were doing the wrong thing etc. To be fair to him, he still hadn't met Alessandro, and he also struggles with speaking about emotions, so he looks at the practical side of things! Instead of saying that he would miss us, he was very negative about practical aspects!

Then, at the end of July, Alessandro came over to stay with us for 3 weeks. He met my family, and after 2 days, my Dad said "Why didn't you let us meet Alessandro before you announced you were moving? My reaction would have been completely different" He absolutely loved him and was then 100% behind us going, as were the rest of our family!

So, although I didn't have to have my Dad's permission to move out here, it was so much better knowing that we were going with his blessing and he was fantastic about helping us to get sorted out, and sorting out the rest of my stuff once we had moved out!!!

So, that is a quite story about how we came to be moving out here! I will update with more news of the past 3 1/2 weeks once I have got a bit more time!

6 days!

I really can't believe that it is only 6 days until we move!  I really don't know where the last few weeks have gone - they have just flown by in a flurry of vitis to the tip to throw out stuff we don't need any more!!!  As well as visits with friends and family to say godbye!  And I still don't feel nervous about the move at all which kind of feels wrong! I will be sad to say goodbye to our friends and family, but am so excited about being with Alessandro and the boys, and starting our new lives together, I guess that has taken away the nerves.

The other nice thing is that usually by now, I have that horrible heavy feeling about the girls going back to school (they would go back tomorrow), but it is really nice that I don't have that, although I am sure I will have it when they start their new schools over there!

Yesterday was spent finishing off sorting out Allie and Lucie's room, with another trip over to the tip!  Its such a shame their room hasn't been as tidy as it is now!  Lucie isn't very tidy at all, and hates having to clear up, but Allie is generally tidy, but sharing a room with Lucie means that she doesn't tidy it up because she resents clearing up Lucie's mess!  Emily has just about finished sorting out her room  - she has been left to do it on her own because I haven't got time to do it so I hope it is ok!  I want them to take photos of their rooms before the removal company come on Wednesday - at least we can pretend they used to keep them tidy!

My room was sorted weeks ago, and the living room is done. We aren't taking much kitchen stuff, so that will be a case of just putting onto the table what we are taking and asking them to pack that!  The loft is empty, so are the two big storage cupboards.

Finally, it is all coming together!  Mind you, I am sure I will have a panic in the next few days about something I have forgotten about!! 

Non-move Excitement!!

Ok, this post is not directly related to our move, but I just had to post as it is so exciting!!!

Yesterday morning, at 4am, we got THE phone call!! Please could we go over to my brother's house to look after my niece, Caitlin as they thought that Emma was in labour and they needed to get to the hospital!!  Lucie had a friend sleeping over, so I had to wake all 4 of the girls up, and get them into the car and over to their house. When we arrived, there was no doubt in my mind that she was definitely in labour - the look on her face and the fact that she was leaning against the back of the chair kind of made it obvious! lol!!

As we arrived, Caitlin (who is just 2), woke up and was crying, asking for Matt. I told them to go, and I would go upstairs to her. She cried for a few minutes, until I explained to her that we were all there to look after her. Then I started to sing to her, which I think is what clinched it - I can't sing, so I think she stopped crying in an attempt to stop me singing!!! Meanwhile, Emily, Lucie and Olivia were settling down in the bedroom downstairs and Alice was lying on the sofa, so I went down to be with Alice. Caitlin was still quite unsettled, so after I had been up to her a couple more times, Alice offered to go up. She spoke to Caitlin for a little while, then got into the spare bed in Caitlin's room and they both went to sleep!

At about quarter past seven, Matt called and said that Emma's contractions were coming pretty hard now, every minute, but he just wanted to make sure they were all ok. I said everyone else was asleep so he could relax and go to be with Emma.

He called again at about half nine and asked to speak to Caitlin. He told her that she was now a big sister, and that she had a little sister, called Lily Constance (the name Lily had been chosen by Caitlin)! She was soooo sweet! She kept rolling onto the sofa and giggling! She looked at us and told us that she had a sister! Then for the rest of the morning, she kept saying, every so often, "I'm a big sister" as if by saying it she could make herself believe it!!

I then spoke to Matt and he said that after he spoke to me at half seven, it all went very quickly and she was born about half an hour after that! She weighed 7lbs 3 oz and both Emma and Lily were doing well, although Emma was obviously very tired having had no sleep!

All four girls were so good at looking after Caitlin - they played with her, ate breakfast with her, and I wasn't even allowed to help change her nappy or anything - they did it all!! There was only one time when Caitlin asked for Matt and Emma, but the girls did a great job of taking her mind off of it by playing with her. And Caitlin was an absolute star!  She was sooooo good - she did everything she was told, played nicely and really couldn't have been any better!

Then at lunchtime, Emma's parents came down and later in the afternoon, they took her over to meet her new baby sister. We went home and I started a migraine which just about wiped me out for the rest of the day!

I spoke to Matt this morning, and they are hoping to be home this afternoon. Depending on how Emma feels and what time they get home, we might go over to see them this evening, or tomorrow.  I can't wait to see her! Matt said she has got lots of black hair, just like Emily had when she was born!!

I am a bit surprised that she is a girl as almost everyone I know has said that they thought it would be a boy! Even Emma's grandmother who is usually right thought she would be a boy!

I am so pleased that she has had her now (she wasn't due till next weekend) as it means we will get to see her quite a bit before we move, hopefully. It will be very difficult leaving both Caitlin and Lily as they will change so much between our visits. It is different leaving adults as they can speak on the phone etc, am not sure quite how Caitlin will be when we speak on skype with them, but will hopefully be ok!

Anyway, as soon as I get some photos, I will post the on here!!!

Ugh!

Ok, I admit it, I am struggling today!  Not with the idea of moving - I am still very excited about that, but with the whole clearing out business!  I have good days. when I clear lots of stuff and feel very pleased with myself at the end of the day. And then I have days like today. Although I have cleared out some of the cupboards in the kitchen (including my craft cupboard!) and taken a car-load of rubbish to the tip, I still feel like it was a small drop in the ocean of everything I have to do! 

It was also a very emotional day for the girls. Their Dad came and took them out for lunch and to say good-bye. He is apparently very busy over the next two weeks, so is unable to see them again before we go. I did think that he might come to the airport to say goodbye seeing as he only lives a little way away from it, but he is obviously far too busy.

Anyway, Lucie now has her friend staying for a sleepover (or a wake-over!), so I have decided to take a break! I bought some scrapkits today, so have to unzip them all and get them organised, then I might actually do some scrapping. I haven't scrapped in what feels like forever, and is certainly a good few months, but playing with the designs of mine and the girls' blogs has got my itching to scrap again!

Here's to a better day tomorrow!!!

Excitement And Chaos!

We are moving to Sweden on 11th September (once I have booked the plane tickets which is on my to-do list!!)  We are moving to be with my fiance, Alessandro.  We met on the internet which I know some people frown upon, but it worked for us!  We spent hours every night talking on skype/msn, and then at Easter we went over to Sweden to meet him and his family. We just got on so well, right from the word 'go', just as we had done online.

He has fab twin boys who are 12 years old, and the girls and I got on so well with them, once they had the confidence to speak in English!  They are very clever boys, speaking Swedish, English and Italian very well. Alessandro is Italian and they lived in Italy when they were younger, and so are now trilingual!

Alessandro's Mum also lives with them and seems really nice, although communication was tricky as she only speaks Italian, so there was quite a bit of sign language between us!  So, not only will be learning Swedish, but Italian too!!!

Anyhow, the removal company is booked, so we are busy clearing things out!  I have lost count of how much 'stuff' we have thrown out, and how many trips to the tip I have made! There is something theraputic about having a clear-out.  We have lived in this house for 10 years, so we have 10 years worth of 'stuff' and believe me, I am a hoarder!!! The girls are having clear-outs in their bedrooms too, and they are discovering things that they had completely forgotten about!

We are trying to be very selective about what we take, but it is very hard as I get very sentimentally attached to things!  How many pictures that the girls did for me did I have?? Tonnes!!!  So, I have had to choose which ones to keep and which ones to get rid of :(

So, I am getting pretty stressed and feel that I am going to run out of time to get everything done! But, it is also very very exciting!  Am on a bit of a roller coaster with my emotions - excitement one minute, and then stress the next!  It will also be hard to leave our family and friends, but we will definitely be keeping in touch and coming back to visit. And everyone is welcome to come and visit us (but obviously not all at the same time!!)

So, here is a map of where we are moving to- Sundsvall - it is going to be very cold in winter, with lots of snow, but that also means lots of skiing!!!

On The Move!

That's right, I am starting this blog to keep a record of our move over to Sweden, and how we get on with our life out there!  The girls and I are hoping to be over there at the beginning of September. It is all very exciting, and I have loads to do to get organised, so the next few weeks are going to be very very busy!