Tjugo Åtta Dagar

I had a hard time coming up with something to share today. I find blogs a little more interesting when they have pictures to go along with them. And I have yet to get those of young Natalie from my parents house.

But there is one picture of young me that I have hanging on my fridge. I'm not much of a stuffed animal person anymore, but this particular stuffed animal is one of the first things I'd save if I had a fire or such in my house.

I received Hippity Hop as a birthday present from my great grandma. I look to be about 5 in the photo. Ever since then Hippity Hop has been with me where ever I have lived. He went to college with me and made the move to St. Louis. And of course he made the move back to Lindsborg. Hippity is one of the last items to be packed away and one of the first to be unpacked.

He's a little ragged now. When I was younger I actually did use it as a pillow at times. The nose tends to get a little hard in the middle of the night. And putting him in the washing machine didn't help the cardboard in the ears. I remember at least twice that mom had to sew on Hippity's poor tail.

No matter what, Hippity will still be a most treasured piece of my childhood.


Bucket List Item- I would really like to become at least moderately fluent in Swedish. Jag talar lite Svenska, but I would love to be able to say more. Anyone want to tutor me? :)

29 Ends With A Bang!

*Disclaimer- the photos I will have in the next 29 blogs will have some other people in them. If you see yourself in a picture and you REALLY don't want it to be up, let me know and I will take it off as quickly as possible.

Now on with the show. Being that it is the 4th of July, today's factoid about me is that I'm all about the Holidays! Really. I get dressed up, have socks and t-shirts that go with them. I even will paint my nails to fit the theme. I don't do all the holidays to this extreme, but a majority I do.

I'll start by wearing green on St. Patty's Day.

Then it's always fun to wear a spring dress for Easter (I know I have pics of when I was younger in Easter dresses, I just haven't gotten to my parents house to find them)

 My next two big holidays are Memorial Day and the 4th of July. Memorial Day weekend is one of the few times I will voluntarily get up early in the morning to go hang flags or watch the Memorial Day Ceremony in the cemetery. I also look forward to visiting all the cemeteries and putting flowers on all of the relatives head stones. This can be a 2 or 3 day process.

 On most holidays even my nails (at least my toe nails) get in on the fun. I've painted them like Easter eggs, fireworks, candy canes, ornaments, etc. These are my toes this year.

This might be my favorite 4th of July get up so far. I even had star earrings, a star anklet and my flip flops are stars and stripes.

Then we rest for a while and prepare for Halloween. (Though sometimes a football game before that seems like a Holiday.) The pictures I have below are from college to present time of Halloween.



Lara Croft- Tomb Raider



 These two costumes (the flapper girl and Pippi Longstocking) were actually worn in the same year. I some how even got conned into wearing the Pippi Longstocking costume to church, as Halloween was on a Sunday that year.



The Princess and the Frog (A.K.A Kermit)



 Trinity from the Matrix. I really liked this costume.

And a Top Gun Pilot

One of the girls from Coyote Ugly

 The cow costume (which was actually a kids costume) won me $10. The biker mouse won me none. :(

For Thanksgiving I usually am too busy trying to figure out my schedule of Christmas shirts to think of anything creative to do. Schedule of Christmas shirts? I've got to be kidding right? Nope. I now have MORE Christmas shirts than there are days from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I now have extended it from the day after Thanksgiving to New Years. Here's a sample of the shirts.

                   
 

 

Some are classy and meaningful. I save those for Sundays. Others are just silly, those tend to be my favorites. Holiday's are just a part of me.

And now for my 'bucket list' item. I would like learn to play the banjo and guitar. I played the piano, violin, and flute growing up. Not well, but I did play them. But I would really like to learn the guitar and banjo. I've started a little with the guitar, but my problem is I don't set time aside to practice. I need to work on that.

*Side note. This is going to come up again in a later blog, but I thought I would start the suggestion now. As I look back on these last 30 years, I would love to see any photos or hear any memories you might have. Especially the funny ones. That will make it seem better somehow to be turning 30. I mean Twenty Ten. Thanks.

30 days to 30 years

So in 30 days (almost just 29, but I'm getting this in under the wire) I will be turning 30 years old. Or as I like to call it Twenty Ten! I haven't really been looking forward to it, but there are the days that I'm at least not hating it all the way. I have decided though to help me cope, I am going to share some memories or facts about me you might not know. And then to help me look towards the future, I'm going to share a 'bucket list' item.

So for this first fact- it's an obvious one to me right now, as I only have ten minutes to get this done on the 30th day. It's that I'm a procrastinator. A HORRIBLE procrastinator! Even on seemingly fun things like this, I will push to the last minute. I will find something, anything else that 'NEEDS' to get done first. I've been meaning to work on this flaw...maybe next week. ;)

(random pic of me because I didn't have time to find one that fit)

And let's see a 'bucket list' item...We will start simple. While my current job is considered full time during the school year, I would really like a job that is full time year round (even if I still work at a school and get summers off) and that I really enjoy. That is one my main priorities right now, so lets pray this one gets done within the next year.

Whew, just made it!

I Give Up!

It's that time of year again. You know the one. Lent. Time to think hard about what you can give up for 40 days (or more if you count Sundays). I would like to make a disclaimer that I'm not Catholic, but I do like this tradition. Even if what I tend to give up is strange, it always makes me think of God more often and usually in a better light.

The first year I decided to try out this tradition was my senior year in high school. I don't really remember what prompted me to try and I really have no clue as to why I picked what I did. I chose to give up potatoes. I guess I thought that would be a fairly simple item to give up my first go round. I was wrong. Back then we had the McDonald's in our home town and seniors had a free lunch. My go to meal was a chicken sandwich with fries and a drink. There went the fries. Even back then I had a love of mashed potatoes. Mom and dad would usually serve those on Sundays. I had to let them pass right on by. And then there was the Pringles incident. My prom was a week or two before Easter. It was After Prom that got me though. Among the two liters of pop and other prizes I won, I had won about 5 containers of Pringles. Pringles are still some of my favorite chips. And here I had to wait before I could open and eat them. I actually remember that I messed up and ate a couple, before realizing in mid bite what I was doing. Whoops.

There have been several other items I've given up since then. I've given up pop a couple of times. One of those times I was working at Rock-A-Belly and the bartenders, knowing what I had given up, would make me a mixed fruit drink instead of my usual Dr. Pepper. One time one of the bartenders put club soda in it (which I still don't think of as pop), but after my first sip he ripped it out of my had insisting he make me a new. The second time I gave up pop was when I was working at Kriegers in St. Louis and drinking pop was what got me through some of my double shifts, but some how I managed to give it up. Even when I had to call it soda.

One year in college I gave up looking at and buying shoes. If you know me, this was a very hard thing to do. I can remember shopping with my friends and speed walking past the shoes so that I didn't have a chance to look. One of my grad AT's tortured me one day, by having all the other AT's help her pick out which pair of Shocks she should get. I mean, how rude. ;)

Two years ago I gave up Facebook. I had learned that I have a bored problem with Facebook. Whenever I get bored, I look on Facebook. I still do that to an extent today. I remember thinking that I should write down all the status updates I thought of during Lent, and 'post' them on my apartment wall. Then when Easter rolled around I could take a pic and ask why people weren't commenting on my wall. :p  I never got around to do that though.

Last year I gave up candy. Which wasn't my hardest, but since I was getting some of my meals from concession stands, it made the selection of supper choices quite a bit smaller. And probably healthier.

So that brings us to this year. It would be interesting to see what you are thinking that I've decided to give up this year. I'm guessing that most of you would be very wrong. I say most, because I have told some already. Drum roll please. This year I'm giving up my.... love seat recliner.  Love seat recliner? Yep that's right. Most of the time my choices just pop into my head, I'm guessing that would be God's little hint as to what he wants me to give up. The first thing that popped into my head was TV, but sadly I just can't do that yet. Maybe next year. Though giving up my most relaxing seat might limit my TV watching.

I have found these winter months, if you can call them that with this warmish temp, I have been sucked into a days of laziness because I don't want to leave my recliner.  So until Easter I am forcing myself not to sit in it. I do have a rocking chair and arm chair in the living room, plus there's even a floor. Imagine that! Freedom's not so sure about this arrangement however. While when I do sit on the floor I play with her more and have given her a much needed and unwanted trim. When I sit on my rocker or arm chair, there is not room for her on my lap comfortably. Though she still tries.

From those that I have told, I get a lot of strange looks. They have questioned me as to how this could bring me closer to God. My explanation to that is simple. Every time I want to sit there I think of why I can't and thus makes me think of God. And I believe/hope that giving up the recliner will make me more productive around the house. So far it has worked. I have almost all of my dishes done (that is a major accomplishment for me). I've had 'time' to catch up on some reading. I've put together a new lamp and started my first wood carving project. I believe that this is God's way of getting some of the sloth out of me. I am excited to see what the rest of the 40 days will bring.

Tradition, Food & Bjärv- Part II

I'm not a morning person. Any of my close friends, family and former roommates can assure you of that. So when 6:30am arrived and I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep, I wasn't the happiest of campers. I was surprisingly enough, up when the knock on my door occurred. I wasn't ready or awake, but I was up.

Back in May I heard that some of our family friends were coming into town for Hyllningsfest. One of them (Gene) had even signed up for the 15k. I think because of the running frenzy that some of the members of my St. Louis church had, I thought it would be a great idea if my sister and I signed up for the 5k. Of course we didn't start training until August and then even then didn't really stick to it as well as we should. However, in the course of those months we had talked my parents into doing the 2 mile walk.

About a week before the race, when we decided we should actually sign up, my sister and I decided we would rather have this be a fun event and enjoy it rather than kill ourselves trying to run it. So we too decided the 2 mile walk was the event for us...at least this year. By the day of the race we had 7 adults and 2 kids signed up for the walk in our group. That all leads us up to that morning when my sister knocked on my door. Not long after that my parents joined us and we were off to the registration table. Did you know how dark it is at 6:30 in the morning? I don't normally see it from that side. ;)

 

At approximately 7:25am our race started. We were off! We set a pretty good pace and were enjoying the early morning with each other. Our group ended up splitting up a little with the first of us finishing at about 7:50am. Just as the first 5k runners were finishing their race. They did start a little after us, so as not to run us over. That gave us the rest of the time to watch the runners come in and wait for Gene to finish his 15k. Which he did in what I call a great victory! He was the 1st in his age group to finish. That earned him a well deserved medal. Way to go Gene!

After the race it was time to find our spots to watch the parade. We met up with my nephews, who were sporting their Swedish costumes. Of course they were, even the mail man was wearing his Swedish costume to deliver the mail. That's just what we do. Anyway, we had to find a good spot, because dad was one of the rifle men protecting the flags as they were marched down the street. So after that 2 mile walk, dad had to walk to the other end of Main to get in the parade, walk the parade route, and then walk back towards the beginning of the route to find us. I'd say he earned a Viking on a Stick or whatever he decided to treat himself with that day.

At the beginning of the parade one of the cars that went past was carrying the Ambassador of Sweden. I was sitting on the curb trying to explain to my oldest nephew what an Ambassador was, when I realized that the Ambassador was speaking to me. In Swedish! At first I thought he was just speaking to the crowd, then he said "Uppsala, ja!" My sister asked me "How do you know the Ambassador?" It was then that it dawned on my that I was wearing my Uppsala shirt and the Ambassador had noticed. If I knew that, I would have practiced my Swedish, but instead all I could do was smile and wave back.

I spent the rest of the parade helping the kids around me catch as much candy as possible and watching so they didn't run in front of a float to get said candy. They have so much candy now, I don't think I will have to buy any Halloween candy for them. But then what kind of aunt would I be if I didn't spoil them rotten? My oldest nephew even got picked from the crowd by the college basketball team to shoot a basket. They even helped him to dunk the ball in the moving hoop they had. Missed that photo opportunity, but it is still a great memory.

The rest of the day was spent working, but come night fall it was time to wind down. I had been invited to hang out with some friends. I was the perfect ending to a festive weekend. Hanging out with friends new and old. Sharing stories, singing (Abba, Journey, classic Disney hits, etc.), and laughing a lot into the wee hours. While it was not as traditional as my past Hyllningsfests, this might have been the best. Until next time.

Tradition, Food & Bjärv- Part I

This past weekend was Hyllningsfest in my home town. A celebration of our Swedish heritage. A festival that I have loved for as long as I can remember and while this year's was not quite the same, it is one to be remembered. My preparation for it started weeks before when my sister wanted me to help her make Swedish costumes for her sons. I was all for it and then proceeded to procrastinate until almost the last minute, but the vests I was making did indeed get done. And while I'm guessing they aren't going to hang onto their Swedish costumes like those of my past,

the pictures and stories will last.  And maybe even the story of how I waited until two days before Hyllningsfest to sew them will be remembered.

As Friday (the first day of the festival) came I was bound and determined to have a good time even though I was scheduled to work for most of the actual festivities. After working a crazy morning, I was headed of to join my parents and family friends downtown to watch the Folkdanslag (adult Swedish dancers). I have enjoyed watching them since I was a kid. They have such a passion for the dances and traditions. The members dancing don't to seem to have aged at all and are still loving what they do.

Although I was going to the Smorgasbord just about an hour after watching the dancing, I decided this might be my one and only chance to get a Viking on a Stick. This was an inspiration my family had once on a trip and suggested it to the Swedish Folk Dancers while my sister was in the group. They tried it, it worked and has been a tradition ever since. Since I only get a chance to get it once every two years, it almost seems better than Christmas presents. I know, I know, you are saying 'What is it?' Answer: Swedish meatballs, Swedish rye bread on a skewer, dipped in a batter and deep fat fried. AMAZING is what it really is. (I actually sent my sister on a quest on Saturday to pick me up more and put them in the fridge).

After the dancing and the Viking on a Stick, it was time to walk across town and take my mother to the Smorgasbord. We had planned to get there early, eat early and get to my dad's concert in plenty of time. WRONG. This was actually the first time I had been to the Hyllningsfest Smorgasbord and had only served at the Midsummer's Smorgasbord, so I didn't know how it worked. Instead they called ticket numbers. But it worked out because while waiting to be seated we got to listen to Bjärv. I didn't know it was that group at the time and I didn't know anything about the group. The folk music they were playing was so jovial that I was hoping the little girls I was with would want to go dance to it, but alas they didn't and I was to nervous to dance alone. The guys (Olof, Ben, and Petrus) were having such a good time and it made their music that much better. I was reluctant to actually go to Smorgasbord and leave the music behind. I couldn't have known this would not be the last time I saw them. So off to the Smorgasbord I went. Yummy food!

After the delicious food, we hurried to watch the Men's Choir, which my dad was a part of. It was a magical moment to be sitting the the church that I grew up in, seeing it packed, listening to my dad (and the rest of them) with my nephew sitting on my lap. It's memories like that, that remind me of why I moved back to Lindsborg in the first place. The men (40 of them) volunteer and only practice for one night a week for seven weeks before the hour long performance. It was the perfect dessert to the Smorgasbord.

To end Friday night I decided to see if any of my fellow classmates were at the Öl Stuga. There were very few, but I did run into Ryan. He and I had gone to school together from kindergarten through high school together. And low and behold, he was friends with Bjärv. I ended up staying, until last call which might not have been a great idea seeing as I had to be up at 6:30am to get ready for the race. But who needs sleep during Hyllningsfest? Day 1 more than complete.

Ace

There are a ton of great memories I have of my high school volleyball years. From running laps through the band room because it was air conditioned, to burning one of my knee pads into my leg. This one has been popping in my head for a couple of weeks now. It happened during my junior year at the end of one of the practices. We were told to serve 20 good serves in a row. Once we were done doing that we could go home. Usually I probably would have counted a couple that I had missed and gotten out of there. But for some reason I decided that I was going to play by the rules this time.

I served several and then served on in the net. Started over and served one out of bounds. I did this over and over. Over serving, under serving, low serving so it hit the net (back then that was an illegal serve). The more I missed the more frustrated I got. And the more frustrated I got, the more I missed. It's one of those vicious cycles. My fellow players were finishing up and leaving the gym. And then there was only me. It would have been easy earlier to  cheat, but now I was the only one the coach was watching.

She stayed giving me tips. And there was one other player that stayed as well. They were both there to support me and to help me get the job done. At one point I was so frustrated I was just slamming the balls and they were going every which way. Coach decided this was a good time for me to get a drink of water. I didn't want water! I wanted to finish this and get out of the gym. I wanted to be as far away from that gym as possible. I thought that I was just showing that I couldn't do this simple task. She was the coach though, so I went out in the hall and got a drink of water. The other player came with me and told me just to breathe and not to worry. I would get it done.

When I got back the coach said the same thing. Before she let me try again, she made me get my nerves under control. I started again. I messed up. The count started over. And again I messed up. I started a third time. I made it to 18. 19. 20! Finally! I still remember the coach and the player (I've chosen not to name her though, just in case) clapping loudly. I had done it. Sure it was about a 1/2 hour after practice had ended and everyone else had left, but I had actually finished it. I thank you two for doing that!

After that day my best position was serving. Serving was my main job my senior year and I ended up getting quite a few Aces and helped to win a spaghetti dinner for the varsity team. Even now I can help teach a serve better than any other move. When scrimmaging against the high schoolers, I still manage to get an Ace or two.