New Year's Resolutions.

Well it's coming to that time of the year, one year is ending and a brand new one is beginning and this year i am hoping to do alot with my life, not just for my own sake but for the sake of my family and everyone around me although most of my resolutions are personal goals that i aim to achieve in the upcoming year.

It's always funny because my New Years Resolutions are normally the same every year and 99% of the time they are broken within the first week of the new year but i am determined this year to make some serious changes and to stick by them. 

So here it is my 2012 New Years Resolutions:

• Completely disown the English Language (obviously my Blog, Facebook & Twitter will still be in English) but i plan on only speaking Swedish at home no matter what, this is something i have tried every year and for some stupid reason gets abandoned because it's quicker and easier to speak English since my fiancée fully understands the English language.

• Spend alot more time with my twin boys. In reality i do spend quite a bit of time with them but not enough doing important things like reading bed time stories, playing games with them and such likes and this is something i really want to change, as i feel that i could have a much better relationship with them if i did alot more with them, other than sit on my computer and blog about their antics.

• Spend alot more time with my daughter. This one might be a bit tricky to accomplish, mainly for the reason she is 14 (15 in February) and well spending time with your parents at that age is just certainly not the cool thing to do, but i really want to do it. I still have no idea how i am going to accomplish this one since we don't really have anything in common except for playing Wordfued on our mobiles but i shall find some way!  

• The next one in the list has to involve the dog, as most of the people who read my blog knows we have a Siberian Husky here at home and although i do not like to admit i have been neglecting him alot as of late, being to lazy to take him out for walks and stuff and this is not right. I wanted to get a Siberian Husky and therefore i must take care of him to the best of my ability and right now i ain't so my New Years Resolution for him is to be alot more active with him, 2 big walks per day and alot of mental stimulation.  

• Another personal goal is to get back into reading, this is something i used to do alot and love to do and i still love it but i am always finding other things that get in the way and when i think to myself i'm going to sit down and read my book today i end up getting caught up with other things that really could have waited. So definitely going to make more of a effort to at least read a couple of chapters of my book per day if not more, and since i got the 5th book in the "A Game Of Thrones" series i have plenty to read seeing as i have only read the first 2 books so still got 3 left to read! which is awsome.

• The next goal and probably one of the most important ones is to get myself a job, i don't even care what it is but just something even if it's only a small part time thing that's only a few hours a week, but i want to get myself out the house and into society, perhaps once i am able to do this i will be able to maybe join a club or something so that i can start to meet people and build up some friendships in Sweden, since currently i have pretty much no friends in Sweden except for a few online friends that live to far away from where i do to actually have any physical contact with  them. So getting into something that i enjoy and meeting people and building up friendships would be awsome.

• My last goal and resolution for 2012 i think is to become a better blogger, i think in the 6 months that i have been blogging that i have done a pretty damn good job at what i do and grown up quite a audience thanks to some people in the blogging world i have met and the wonderful tribes that i am on Triberr.com. But like everything i do i want to become better at, so my goal for 2012 on the blogging front is to try and double if not triple my view count per month (which is currently sitting at around 6000+ views per month), it might be a big achievement to aim for but i shall try at least!

So there you have it folks, these are my current Resolutions and goals for 2012 and i am hoping that i am able to achieve them all, as i have said before i have a real bad tenancy to let things slide and then when they have just give up and not even bother trying to reach them but i am going to try really hard this year to do them all and become a better person & parent which i think everyone could certainly do.

But what is your person resolutions for this year? anything exciting or just the same old stuff like mines that you are going to try even harder to accomplish? I would be really interested to read! and don't forget to give me your opinions on my own resolutions.

But until next time i hope you all have a really great New Year! and i wish you all the very best to 2012.

I would also like to take a small moment to thank everyone who has helped me promote my blog and helped me in the blogging world to gain a bigger audience if it wasn't for people like Richard from The Butterbottom Blog and many others like him i probably wouldn't be where i am today, and of course a big Thank You to all my viewers who come back time and time again to see what has been happening in my crazy life, you guys are awsome!

What A Christmas!

I had said to the children when they came home from their dads house on the 23rd that i wanted them to sleep to at least 8am since myself and Marie had made the decision that we would only allow the children to open one Christmas gift in the morning and the rest would be opened in the afternoon once Marie's parents had been around and we were done with that. But being the big kid that i am i was the one that got up at 6am while everyone stayed fast asleep, so i was up sitting in front of my computer with my warm cup of tea enjoying the peace and quiet waiting anxiously for everyone to wake up so we could get down to the business of opening gifts!

 The boys were the first to open their gift and let's just say they were very happy with it.

 Mikaela was next and i think she was pretty happy with the gift that she received from my parents (Some Jewellery Crafting Kit)

I had decided that because Marie wasn't going to open anything in the morning that i myself would also wait and just play with the kids and their x-box game, plus it gave me time to get myself looking presentable for when Marie's parents arrived at 10:30. We had also decided that we would do a little bit of "fika" as well when her parents arrived since we had decided to eat dinner a bit later with us having a skype call with my parents as well that day.

 The boys got a couple of tops and some LEGO which they were more than delighted with!

Mikaela received the one gift she had been going on about for ages a CONVERSE bag!

But after the excitement off the grandparents gifts it was time for the gifts under the tree, all we had heard since Marie's parents had arrived was "When are we opening the preasents under the tree??" Lets just say everyone was spoiled rotten by my parents, sister & family but i think myself and Marie managed to top everything as far as Mikaela was concerned when after all the other gifts was opened we managed to find a gift that hadn't been placed under the tree for her, her first Android mobile phone. I don't think i have ever seen a bigger smile of any kids face than i did when she opened it! And to top it off Marie had bought me one as well, not the same phone but one that i had been looking at online for a few months, so perhaps my smile beat Mikaela's slightly since i didn't think i would get it with it being a bit expensive!

I think my parents bought the kids the ultimate gift as you can see from the above picture of Alexander holding up his new digital camera, it's actually a real digital camera. Obviously not top quality as it's only a children's one but it takes pictures and videos and everything and they absolutely love it, i think they like it even better than the X-Box game that myself and Marie bought them lol.

Marie was also very pleasantly surprised when she opened her Christmas gift from my parents and found that she had got her very own Nintendo DS, something she had been going on and on about for about 4 years solid that she wanted, after seeing my mum playing a few games on hers, so lets just say everyone was very happy with their gifts this Christmas!

But i think that is all for today i hope you enjoy all the photo's that i have put up! it was a fantastic day but now we are getting ready for New Year! hoping that this upcoming year is going to be something special, i think i will be posting up a new post tomorrow about New Year and resolutions but we shall see if i manage to find the time, with all the kids being home it's a bit crazy in here especially when Marie is back at work :)

If you would like to see more pictures taken at the Christmas time then just click on this LINK! and see some more great shots!

Wishing You All A Merry Christmas!

Unlike most countries Sweden is one of those countries that celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December instead of the 25th, when i first moved here i found it very weird and it took a good few years to get used to but now it's just part of me, it's really funny how some traditions of another country can just become a part of you after you have lived there for a few years, especially when you grew up somewhere else and were used to they're traditions.

But i am so looking forward to tomorrow i must admit, not so much for myself as i am not a Christmassy person but there is nothing like seeing the excitement on the kids faces when they wake up in the morning and see that good old Santa Claus has been bearing gifts for them. We have decided to switch things up this year though, as normally we get up and open up all the Christmas presents in the morning before Marie's parents come out with their gifts but this year we are only going to allow the children to open 1 gift and then that will have to do them until Marie's parents have been and gone and then they can open up the rest.
So it's going to be a bit strange again for me since i'm so used to opening everything in the morning but we shall see, i'm pretty sure the kids will be happy either way as we will allow them to open up their xbox game that we got them, so that "should" keep them occupied for a few hours at least, and me too perhaps ;)

Although for the first time ever i am not going to have a white Christmas, we had lovely snow up until last night when it decided it would go and rain and be a bit more warmer and literally melted all the snow away, so for the first time since i can remember i will have no snow at Christmas which is a bit horrible but not much i can do about it :(

But i just thought i would take this time to wish all the people that come to my blog and follow my blog a Very Marry Christmas and hope that you have a awsome New Year!

I'm sorry that the blog posts have been few and far between this week but it's been a bit hectic over here on the lead up to Christmas and to be absolutely honest i have found myself very tired, i don't know why but from the minute i wake up to the minute i go to bed i just feel absolutely exhausted.

So until next time i hope that you have been good and that Santa brings you everything you wished for! and if you have been bad? well good on you! and enjoy the coal in your stocking hehe!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Wordless Wednesday

At the weekend it was time to put up our Christmas tree, unlike most tree's ours doesn't get decorated until you can't see the tree at all but it's still nice all the same and the kids love to help out so enjoy some pictures that i took at the weekend of the kids helping out with the tree.

The Finished Product

Couldn't resist grabbing a photo of the dog since he was lying so nicely for a change.

Well that is all for today, again i will try and do more blog posts but it's a bit hectic over here so the chances are none will come, but i hope you enjoyed the photo's of the kids putting up the Christmas Tree at the weekend, but until next time i hope you have a great day!

Job Coach Officially Over.

So it seems that is the end of my time with the Job Coach officially, i have to admit i have been some what less impressed with the service than i thought i would be, although i was warned by many people who also live in Sweden that job coaches are not exactly the best thing in the world i still half expected it to be slightly better than it was but perhaps i should have lowered my expectations slightly.

Don't get me wrong i have gotten alot further in my job searching than if i would have done it myself with absolutely no help, but my understanding of the whole process was that the job coaches have loads of contacts or network if you would prefer to call it that, and it seems that is not the case exactly, however saying that i must admit i have a pretty nice CV and a few different cover letters now that i can mix and match and play around with so hopefully next year i will be more successful in my job hunting.

Although my time with my job coach is officially over, we shall still meet another few times seeing as we missed quite a few appointments due to her being unwell and having double booked / meetings etc but officially it's over and i have to admit i'm going to kind of miss it, granted i didn't think it was all that great and still think it could have been alot better but i made it what i could make it and as i said i got quite a bit from it although not as much as i was hoping. And even though i cringed at the thought of having to travel into town every a week to meet her for only a couple of hours (Mainly because i knew i would have a 2 hour wait after the meeting) i am still going to miss the interaction with someone other than my direct family over here.

Perhaps i need to get into something like a sport or something that will allow me to have some social interaction with people other than my family, but i guess that is just something i will have to think about in the next coming weeks.

But overall it was a ok experience and i would do it again but perhaps i would try and make it alot more than it was, maybe demand alot more than i did or something along those lines but i got quite a bit out of it at the end of the day so i should be happy with it i guess, and like i said we shall be meeting after the Christmas and New Year to make up for the appointments i missed out on.

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, i don't know how i will do with the blogging next week because well it's the week before Christmas and that means it's going to be a bit crazy over here in not so snowy Sweden, but i shall try my best to make a post here and there over the next week but until then have a great weekend!

Not Feeling Very Christmassy

As the children and my fiancée Marie get more and more excited for Christmas next week i have found myself sitting feeling less and less excited, for what reason i do not actually know but right now it just feels like Christmas is months away instead of being next weekend.

I know that Christmas is the time of the year where families come together and enjoy each others company and has a real fun time exchanging gifts and eating amazing food but every time i look outside i get the feeling of "meh".

To be honest when you look outside into your back garden you expect to see fields of snowy whiteness and the winter chill but instead of that, i am faced with this. Cold and Wet and not of the snowy kind, oh no it's of the rainy kind and how can this possibly promote Christmas.

I have been like normal downloading the latest episodes of my favorite TV shows and most of them are doing their Christmas episodes which is filled with lovely decorations and snow beyond belief and i'm sitting here with rain, rain and wind that just doesn't make me feel very Christmassy at all.

I'm hoping on Sunday that i begin to feel more in the mood for the festive season as we shall be putting up our Christmas Tree with the children and no doubt Marie will be blasting her Christmas music and be all happy, so hopefully i will be able to get in the mood. Obviously i don't try and show my dismay to the children because that is what Christmas is all about, it's about the kids and the spirit that is Santa Claus himself.

But right now the song "It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas" is certianly lying to me right now, but i shall leave you with a little YouTube clip of the Christmas Classic and hope that at least where you are that it is beginning to look alot like Christmas!

But for now i shall bid everyone farewell for today and i hope your having a great day! and if you have some snow where you are, can you do me a favour? and send it my way please!

Wordless Wednesday

Sticking with the Christmas theme i found some pictures of last year where we decided that we would take all the kids and the dog up to the football pitch just up from us for a bit of snow fun, was really hoping to do it again this year but the snow we got has all but vanished and outside is currently looking like autumn weather rather than Christmas weather, so enjoy our little play date last year with the family some cracking pictures i must admit and brings back really fond memories.

We Found The Ultimate Gift!

Last week myself and Marie were in town for our daughters annual parents meeting with the school to see how she was doing, turns out she was doing pretty damn good which was really nice to hear. Because we had a few hours to spare before the train back to Järpås we decided that we would pop into the local gaming store in town to price up these Lego games that we had looked at for the kids, you know just to see if we could possibly get them a bit cheaper in town than we could online and as we were talking to the owner of the store he directed us to what i would consider especially for 6 year old little boys the ULTIMATE game for them!

When we first seen it was like PERFECT! this is something that although comes with the game 3 figures and the summoning platform was fairly priced and looked like it was something the kids would absolutely love, i had personally seen a few adverts online while watching various gaming streams about it but never thought anything off it until he showed us it.

Basically you get the game for the XBOX, PS3 or WII, you get 3 toy figures and what they call a summoners platform for whatever console you may own, we personally have the XBOX so we shall be buying that version and what you do is you plug in the summoners platform and when you start the game you are asked to place one of the 3 toy figures onto the platform. Once you have done this the toy is transported into the game and then you can play that character and each character has unique abilities which help you in the game to get extra items and things like that.

I mean seriously what 6 year old child wouldn't love that! Not only that you can play 2 of the toy's on the platform and play together or in a battle mode against each other! and on top of that you are able to purchase new characters in either a 3 pack or just a single character from your local store, so it means that if they boys are being good one weekend while we are in town instead of going and buying some useless toy that they will probably brake within 5 minutes we can go and treat them to a new character which is awsome!

So i think Christmas is sorted for the little twin boys, not only do i get to teach them and watch them play a game i honestly think it's a game they are going to love the hell out of. I've put a YouTube video below so that you can see what it's like but seriously if your stuck for a Christmas present for either your son or daughter i would highly recommend you checking this out as it looks truly brilliant!

But for now i think i shall bid you all farewell, i would really like to know what you think of this! Hope you have a great day!

The Funniest Thing Happened Last Night.

Yesterday myself and Marie was up at the school attending the boys i guess you could call it Christmas play, basically all the boys class did was stand behind what was meant to be a pirate ship and sang songs while the older children sang some songs and had some speaking parts, i couldn't quite make it out since they done the production in the school gym and well with all the echo and all the other noise going on but it was something about a ship and a pirate ship i think, but it was fun to watch and Alex & Max really got into the singing.

Unfortunately we we're not allowed to take our camera with us or take any photo's due to one of the children in the production having a protected identity, i have no idea what for but it doesn't really matter. So due to this all camera's and video camera's were prohibited. But the school has taken some photo's which we have been informed that we will receive a copy at some point so although we were unable to take any photo's at least we will get some taken by the school themselves.

But anyways back to the story, with the production going on a bit later than the kids bedtime it was straight home, brush teeth and into bed for the boys, they had already had food up at the school so no dinner was required thank god, don't really like the thought of having to feed them at 7pm at night, but once to bed myself and Marie settled ourselves down for the night to watch some TV and just generally chill out after a long day (Long day for Marie, but not for me i guess).

After a few hours i heard some rustling in the hall way and thought nothing off it since our oldest daughter was up stairs doing homework i just figured she had forgot something and was down the stairs to get whatever it was however when i turned my head there stood a little boy (my son Alexander) eyes wide open, standing in his jammies with his gym bag that had been lying in the hall way. Of course my first reaction was to ask him what the hell he was doing, and why was he not in bed but before i could even get a word out Marie said to me "Hold on a second, just bare with him" i still hadn't a clue what was going on but i left him to it, he then proceeded to say "Good morning Mum" and sat himself down on the arm chair and watch TV.
It was then that myself and Marie understood what was happening, for the first time EVER that we have ever seen out little boy was sleep walking and was still fast asleep the poor wee soul.

I know that some people sleep walk, my younger sister Laken used to do it alot, but i had never actually seen anyone do it especially a 6 year old child and i couldn't do anything but laugh my head off as Marie proceeded to pick him up from the chair and take him back to bed, he never mentioned anything about it this morning so i'm guessing he hasn't realised what he did, but it was just the way he walked through the door like nothing was wrong and it was completely normal holding his gym bag and plonked himself down on the arm chair to watch some TV. I mean normally they don't even watch TV in the morning so i have no idea what made him sit down to do it but it was hilarious. 

I honestly wished i had the camera or even a video camera close just to take a video or picture of it because it was a absolute priceless moment i must admit.

Drop me a comment with any funny sleep walking stories you may have, i would love to read them as if i found this funny i could just imagine what other people have seen.

But i think that is me done for the week, i hope everyone has a awsome weekend! But until next time, take care!

Our Landlord Is A Moron!

There is quite possibly a million reasons as to why our landlord can be quite frankly referred to as a complete and utter moron, at first when we got the house from him he seemed like a really nice guy, i mean when he took us out originally to see the house out here in Järpås he even took myself and Marie up to the local pizzeria for a bite to eat and to discuss stuff which was really nice of him, but over the past few years he has turned into a complete and utter jackass.

Take for example in our son Maximus's bedroom a few years ago for some reason rain was leaking through the window and it happened to run down the wall and turned the wall into complete mush, it was so bad that the windowsill that is attached by screws onto the wall has actually came off, and we have been asking him for the last 2 years to get it fixed and is it done yet? hell no it ain't!
And then you have the upstairs playroom floor, when we moved in the previous owners had obviously done something that left a big hole in the flooring of the room and he said that we just had to pick out what flooring we wanted up there and that he would get it sorted, well at first we decided since the boys were only 2 i think when we moved in that we would just leave it and put a rug over it but a few years ago once more we asked him to get it sorted out and still not done.

Now we come to present day, on Sunday the washroom where our Washing Machine and Tumble Dryer  etc is become overflowed with water from the washing machine so Marie called him up and asked him to come and sort it out, he had said that he would be unable to come out tomorrow (meaning Monday) but he would come out and sort it on Tuesday, now this was ok with us i mean sometimes the guy is busy since he does own multiple properties around the area, but Tuesday came and Tuesday went and when Marie had phoned him to ask if he was coming out he had informed her that he was unable to because he got caught up with other things. This is alright if it wasn't for the fact i seen him outside on a snow mobile taking away snow from the apartment building across the street from us!

But we let it slide and yesterday he eventually did come around, sure he sorted the over flowing problem but later that evening when Marie returned from work she got to find the mess he had left, i would have noticed it myself but he had come through to the livingroom where i was sitting and told me he had finished and that it was all sorted now, so i didn't bother to go through and look, but when Marie shouted me through OMFG the whole fricken floor was covered in white powder (Obviously the unblocking agent he had used) which as far as i can tell is actually harmful and that is where the cats food is!

At the moment i'm just so bloody angry at the guy, and just can't wait to get myself a job so that we can start looking for somewhere else to live, because this guy is one absolute moron that i just can't put up with, i would normally start going on about how we should report him etc, but according to Marie's dad we actually can't cause there is no law about it or some crap like that i have no idea so i'm just going to take his word for it, but i mean seriously. Well right now he is actually talking about raising our rent so i have said to Marie that we should refuse to pay the rent increase until everything that is needing sorted in the house is done, but i don't know if she will tell him that or not.

But that is my rant done for today!, Landlords = Morons it's a proven fact!

So until next time, i hope you all have a great day!

Wordless Wednesday

So seeing as we are in the December months and leading up to Christmas i decided that Wordless Wednesday will feature pictures from all the Christmas's i've had in Sweden, unfortunately not all was captured on camera so we have to start from 2009 in which my parents and sister came to visit and celebrate with us, i have to admit it has so far been the best Christmas over here, having my family over here along with my parents was just the best ever! I hope you enjoy them.

My folks decided they wanted to go outside for a Family shot turned out really nice in all honesty.

Since in Sweden we don't do this type of thing my Sister decided that she would bring some decorations from the UK so at least the kids could see what sort of things they do in the UK, they loved them.

Folks also brought over some Crackers for us to share at the Christmas table went down a blast, although Marie didn't quite like the party hats lol!

Snow Has Fallen

I wrote a good while ago named "Winter Is Coming.." as it was looking like it was actually coming however the weather decided that it would make us wait a while longer infact nearly 2 months longer before the first piece of snow hit our lovely small little town and so it has begun!.

It all started last night while i was sitting online playing with some friends Marie came through to ask if i had seen outside yet, of course seeing as i was sitting at my computer headset on talking away with friends from the UK i opted to reply with a "errr no" and now i wished i hadn't got up to look because as i looked out the back door all i could see was little white flutters of snow falling from the sky.

You will notice our tree is a bit broken, from the storm we had a few weeks ago, haven't got around to moving it yet!

Now i have a kind of love/hate relationship going on with snow, i always have had i think but since moving to Sweden it's definitely gotten worse, sure the UK gets snow but Sweden they get SNOW! and i mean by the absolute bucket load. Last year i took the dog up to the local football pitch with all the kids for a bit of a mess around in the snow since Kaiser being a pure bread Siberian Husky loves the stuff and so does the kids and when i stood in it keeping in mind im 6ft 2inches tall well it was up to just above my waste in some parts.

Lovely Snow

Now back to the love/hate relationship part it's quite simple really i love the look of snow, i mean there is nothing like waking up in the morning and seeing that your whole back garden and the rest of the area around you is covered in a beautiful white coat of snow, it just looks amazing, of course after a while and once the kids and the dog has been out in it, it doesn't really have the same look but eventually we get more snow and it covers the footprints etc and looks lovely again.
Also building snow men is quite fun, i haven't actually done it with the kids yet (Don't ask me why because i have no idea) but i would like to go out and do it when we get a bit more this year and have a bit of fun.

Even more lovely snow

But then we come to why i hate the damn stuff, it's not only cold but it's WET and that is probably one of the main reasons why i hate it, not to mention when enough cars and people have walked the roads and paths it becomes near enough impossible to walk on without falling on your ass, sure it's fun the first few times but after the 100th time it becomes more annoying than anything!
And then you have the most annoying thing about snow especially if your bathroom door is located next to your front door, you have children who have been out in the snow at school and having fun coming into the house, now we always get the kids to bang their shoes outside before coming in but obviously this doesn't get all the snow off, so they come in to the house take their shoes of and then leave puddles of water all around the front door area, and if your like us and don't wear slippers you walk around in your socks or bare feet, so you end up walking to the bathroom and on the way your feet end up completely soaked this i can tell you is NOT at all fun!

But i'm still glad we have snow and hopefully we get some more before the Christmas arrives because let's face it Christmas is not Christmas without snow!

But until next time! i hope you all have a great day!