Happy New Years!

Now listen up all you youngsters, keep it down tonight, I'm in no mood for you to have fun!

Our New Years will be celebrated with oven baked pancake, and then white chocolate mousse for desert, fallowed by falling asleep on the couch by 21.00. woohoo.

Nils is sick and I hurt so there will be no festivities for us this year, and to be honest, I'm perfectly fine with that. In fact, I'm so fine with that I'm going to post a picture of a frog.

Love,
Mango Kitty

crippled

Miss Mango hurts. A lot. As if it isn't bad enough that my therapist has pneumonia and has been sick for 4 weeks and wont be back until after new years, my fibromyalgia has come a roaring in basically crippling me. I cant get up from the couch or a chair without my vikings help. I feel like a complete invalid and have been fighting with my non present (they're all on Christmas vacation) doctors trying to get some more medication. They promised a Dr. would call me next week. I swear if they don't the will suffer the wrath of a cripple swinging a frozen fish. why a frozen fish you may ask? because it would hurt.

The cats however, are living the good life of having two couches.
it allows them to be in the same room relaxing without having to really interact with each other, which is perfect. New feramon treatment is on it's way!

Merry Christmas!

God Jul!

We had a wonderful Christmas lunch at Ammi's yesterday and in addition to playing Santa for my mom, we got some really great gifts!









The pendant sais "God grant me the serenity... to acccept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdome to know the difference". And the bracelet says "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words And never stops at all"

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas here in Sweden, Even if all of the snow magically disappeared right before it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Channukah everyone!!!

Love,
Mango Kitty

Cookie Madness!

Behold Mango Kitty's Cookie factory!!!
me and my neighbor made cookies for everyone in our building! Why you may ask? Because we are awesome.

The cats, as usual, were not helpful at all. Mostly they slept, I suspect it is because they are cats. But also because it was SO warm in our apartment that they didn't feel like getting into trouble.

I called the vet about them today, she was also not helpful. She said if it continues it will not be good to keep them together but we are NOT giving up on Indi because we love her too much and Mi-Go loves her too much to just give up. new feramon treatment is on it's way, we'll have to hope it works.

Love,
Mango Kitty

Happy Channukah!!!

Happy Channukah to all I love and to those I've yet to meet and may love in the future!!!!

I realized that during the move our menorah got packed in some box, and I have NO IDEA where it is. So i present to you , my homemade menorah, made from and egg carton, tinfoil, a pill bottle cap, and tea candles, held together with hot glue. Am I brilliant or what? It may not follow all the official rules for a menorah, but it's the thought that counts in my opinion.

Latkes tonight, ginger bread men tomorrow!

Love,
Mango Kitty

p.s. we have snow!

Julkrans

I'm proud to present my julkrans (wreath) for the 2011 holiday season. With some creative hanging I'd say our front door is looking rather lovely.

On Christmas I will NOT be partying with the rest of Sweden. (In Sweden, Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve and everyone parties on Christmas Day) I will, in fact, be baking Christmas cookies with my neighbor :)

We're still having cat issues, and their getting worse. Today Mi-Go was just standing in the kitchen and Indi came up and bit him on his side. No physical damage done but the point is clear, she does not want him to be around. I really don't know how to solve this, I'm planning on ringing the vet on monday to see if she has any more advice on what to do. I'm afraid she'll actually hurt him one of these times, and then we'll have to separate them. Do they make baby gates for cats? I think not. ::sigh:: I don't know how to solve this and I HATE not knowing how to solve this. Hopefully the vet will have some good advice. Anyone out there is cyberland know how to make a cat stop being a bitch? (I know... I couldn't even write it without laughing)

Love,
Mango Kitty

cookies

Today I baked cookies. Because that's what you do when you get a new oven, you bake cookies.

I've also been doing crazy work on my "Bra Bok" Filling it full of pictures of loved ones, song lyrics, cut outs from old DBT papers, and other general "feel good" "stay sane" stuff. I'll be keeping it in my bag so when I'm in stressful situations like on the buss or waiting for an appointment I can pull it out and calm down a bit.

Never did find that cell phone charger, but I found one that connects to the computer instead of the wall outlet so I officialy have a mobil again. It's crazy how dependent I've become on my phone, I remember when I was so excited because I got my own chorded phone in my room. That was big news back then. Oh how times have a changed.

I have tomorrow off. We'll see how much cleaning is involved in my day, I'm guessing not so much.

Love,
Mango Kitty

CAKE OR DEATH!

I so wish I had the creative baking skills of Doktor Glas...

















Love,
Mango Kitty

Oven Joy!

Today we got our new (free) oven! To celebrate we made pumpkin pie. mmmmm pumpkin piiiiiiie!
Sometimes I'm very very happy we rent.

In other news, I lost the charger for my cell phone, so the best way to get a hold of me is the home phone, gmail, or facebook till I figure out where it's been hiding.





Love,
Mango Kitty

fire hair

Here's a bit more accurate picture of the "fire blond". Roots, very very blond, ends really rather fire like. I must say this was not my intention but I rather like it.

It's actually rather strange being home after being "supervised" for 39 days. We had only lived in this apartment for a month before I went in, so now I have to re-relearn all the sounds and such of the apartment.

Also, my contact people on the ward would be very happy to know that I have done NO CLEANING sense I got home. There were very strict instructions that I was not to clean the first few days, that I was to sit on my couches, cuddle with the cats, and talk to Nils. So far I think I've done a pretty good job with that, though the cats are still trying to pretend they aren't happy I'm home :)

Blond???

So i needed a chage to spark my recovery, this is the result! Now I am discharged, and my  Viking is making me dinner :)  Life is looking up for Miss Mango :)

Love,
Mango Kitty

The grand tour

So I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of our new place. Enjoy the tour and excuse the crappy cell phone pictures!

Love,
Mango Kitty

Pumpkins!

I'd like to present to you the pumpkins of 2011. It's hard to get a decent picture without a flash but I'm pretty proud of them. Technically only the middle one is mine, the other two are my neighbors that I carved for her. I'm happy with how they've turned out.

Tomorrow is our neighbor fika and our oven is broken. Thankfully I can use our neighbors oven to bake the muffins I was planning on feeding them. I'm so glad my neighbors are awesome.

Now I'm going to sit in front of the tv and knit. and knit. and knit...



Love,
Mango Kitty

Crap

So we have two unhappy cats. Mi-Go had an appointment at the vet today which reviled he has a broken toe. So he's on painkillers (which he does NOT like) for a week to ease the pain until the toe heals on it's own. She said that if it was more serious they would have had to put a pin in it or maybe even amputate the toe, but she said that it should take care of itself and we're praying it will. Poor Mi-Go.
Indi continues to have issues sense the move. She's still hissing at Mi-Go and swatting at him as well (though we've never seen her do this with claws out) Mi-Go just sits there and takes it, he so badly wants to be friends again. The vet recommended a pheromone spray that works really well for over stressed cats. I'll pick it up tomorrow after my acupuncture and we'll have to pray it works, cuz it aint cheap.

As far as humans go, my Viking is also having trouble adjusting to the move, though it always takes him a bit longer to become accustomed to new surroundings.

And as for me, well... I'm not doing so well. Every fall i crash. Every. Fucking. Fall. And this year everyone said I wouldn't. That I was so functional, and doing so well and had such a good support system that I'll make it threw the fall no problem.
Fools.

Love,
Mango Kitty

GOod NeWs

I don't have diabetes! In fact all of my blood work was in the normal range! Few... I am SO relieved, and I totally did a little dance when I found out. ^^
My thumb hurts though. I swear I have the worst veins ever. The lab took one look at my arms and said nope, they didn't even TRY to get blood out of me and had to call up the narcosis team (the people who put people to sleep for surgeries and stuff) and she ended up having to take it from my thumb!
In case you were wondering, getting blood drawn from your thumb sucks! I really would not recommend it. I would however, recommend that you take better care of your body so you don't have a scare like I've had!

Love,
Mango Kitty

nerves of jello

I am fasting for some medical tests in the morning and fuck am I nervous. Chances are that things will come back in the normal range and I can carry on like normal. Or I could have diabetes. And that scares the hell out of me. Today I've been knitting, and knitting, and knitting to try and keep my brain from exploding. I honestly feel like I could vomit I'm so concerned, but whatever the outcome of tomorrow is, we'll work it out. Hell, I learned how to live gluten free when I didn't even know what gluten WAS when i found out I couldn't tolerate it. With the help of my Viking and my family it will be ok, but the idea of:
Lactose intolerant
Gluten intolerant
Mentally ill
Fibromyalgia
AND Diabetes
just doesn't seem fair. Oh well, like my mother always says:

"You've got to play the hand you're dealt"

Alright world, lets play...

Love,
Mango Kitty

Toenails

DAMN YOU MI-GO I DO NOT WANT TO BE AWAKE AT 04.30!!! Unfortunately my threats of hanging him up by his toenails do nothing to stop him from scratching at the painting my Dad brought back from Africa for me. Thank God I framed it properly so he's not actually doing any damage to it but it's definitely not a behavior we want to encourage. It's also really REALLY annoying. But it's not as dangerous as his obsession with LICKING computer chords. Particularly USB cables. WTF is up with that? I've never in my life heard of a cat licking computer cables. My monster is beyond my level of animal expertise. ::sigh:: I need a cat whisperer... and coffee.

Love,
Mango Kitty

incase you didn't know...

I hate the fall. And it hates me.

There's not enough chai tea in the world to get me out of this funk...

Love,
Mango Kitty

Technology!

I finaly got the blogger app to work on my phone, though i am by no means an expert phone typer I like that I'll be able to update on the go. Now I'm off to have fika with my Vikings grandparents :)

phhththththt!!!

yea, that basically sums today up. Nothings really worked today, I've finished my story, but am afraid it is far to twisted to be appropriate for a school assignment. I made invitations for my neighbors to come for fika, but I don't know when I'll be able to have said fika. I cut my hair, but I'm liking it less and less as the hours go by. Oh well, hair grows back, invitations can be sent later, school assignments can be re-done if rejected, and tomorrow is a new day.

Tomorrow is also "Thursday of Doom" with therapy, a meeting with an arbetsterapeut, and then seeing my darling Lu. It will be made extra DOomy with the fact that it is also me and my Vikings four year american wedding anniversary. whew! Ofcorse we have absolutioly nothing planned, other than making goo with wild mushrooms for dinner, and trying to find a movie to watch that we both agree on. We don't really celebrate our american anniversary that much, we both consider our Swedish wedding to be the official one, but it's still nice to spend an evening together. ^^

hopefully it will turn out to be a better day than today. with goo.

Love,
Mango Kitty

the end of productivity

This week I have been incredobly productive. Hours of unpacking boxes, plus dishes, re-aranging furniture, hanging pictures, doing laundry. But all this in adition to the actual move and the wedding over the weekend has finally caut up to me. At precisely 4pm my productivity ground to a stop. I limped into the kitchen later for some food, but this day's not getting anything else out of me. We're driving the last of the boxes (THERE'S STILL MORE BOXES!!!) from Ammi's tomorrow, we'll see if I'm able to do more than hold the door. I'm hoping if I take it easy for the rest of the day and up until the time we move boxes I'll be ok. But we all know that's not necessarily how this body of mine works. I'm so ready for everything to be put away, it's unbelievable HOW MUCH STUFF we have. honestly I'd be ok with tossing the remaining boxes in the dumpster that's how sick I am of putting things away. Somehow I don't think my Viking would agree with me...

Love,
Mango Kitty

muffin from nuthin

Last night I got a craving for desert, and I came across the best healthy muffin recipe ever. Even with no Sugar and no Butter they're super yummy and very easy to make replacing the whole wheat and all-purpose flour with a basic gluten free flour mix. They've got Mango Kitty's stamp of approval!!!

Honey Oatmeal Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine oats, flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and soda; mix well. Beat eggs, honey, milk and oil together; mix well. Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients; mix only until moistened. Spoon into oiled muffin tins or muffin papers. Bake at 375°F for 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean.

Recovery

I survived!!!

The Move.
The move went smoothly, we got all the furniture in, though some of it had to be broken down into little pieces. Much thanks to Sören who managed to put our couch back together! Ammi, Sören, and Susan were absolutily wonderful during the move, shuffaling boxes and setting up furniture. And an extra thanks to Ammi for helping get our old appartment ready for turning over the keys. I'm lucky to have Inlaws as wonderful as I do! It's still chaos in the apartment but it's soooo much better than it was. The kitchen is now usable, and we have TV, phone, and Internet. The cats are adjusting well, though Mi-Go spent the first day under the bed. It's not strange he was scared and stressed, we got him when he was 8 weeks old and had only left our old apartment once and that was to get castrated! But he's doing much better and out and about eating well and all that good stuff. Indi didn't really have much of a problem, by the end of the first day she was rolling around for belly rubs, though she had moved before so it wasn't as much of a shock for her.
We've met some of our neighbors and they're really really nice, they came up for coffee yesterday. I just love this apartment, I love the environment it's in, I love that I'm not afraid here, and I love that there's a bus stop RIGHT out front of the building.


The wedding.
The wedding was beautiful. Beautiful weather, beautiful couple. There was no crying, no hissy fits, no disasters. The worst thing that happened over the entire day was that the groom stepped in dog shit! The day started with wine at the hairdresser. (who tried to convince me to go to school for hairdressing!) after we were all dolled up the photographer came and we went around town and then into the woods for some BEAUTIFUL shots of the couple. The weather could not have been better for an outdoor wedding in October, and the ceremony was beautiful. And the after dinner entertainment was a FREAKING FIRE SHOW!!! These two guys danced with fire to Rammstein, it was SOOOOOOO cool! All in all a beautiful day.

And as if this post wasn't long enough...
I met with my guidance counselor today at school and am now studying from home! I'm super excited about this, and I'm going to keep my teacher, we're just going to communicate via email instead of going to class. Tonight I'm going to figure out my schedule, and then it's back to the books!

For now, I'm going to bed :)

Love,
Mango Kitty

sausage

It's 02:40 and it smells like sausage. I am unimpressed with both things in that sentence.

There probably wont be much posting for a few days, Thursday is moving day (YAY!) then friday I'm off to Halmstad to help set up for Lovely Linda's wedding, then the actual wedding Saturday (YAY!), then cleaning the old apartment Sunday, then off to meet with my guidance councilor about studying from home on Monday. Tuesday I rest. Oh wait, no I don't, I unpack!

All very good things... (except for sausage at 2:40am)

Love,
Mango Kitty

Move-zilla!

RAWR! I AM MOVE-ZILLA! I must organize EVERY DETAIL of our move and decide the EXACT TIME that the oven will be cleaned a WEEK before it needs to be!!! WAAAHAHAHA!! Fear my over-planning and tremble at the sight of my weekly spreadsheet!

ok... maybe I need to calm down a bit....








Love,
Mango Kitty

the lonely Jew

I wish I could go to Temple. I'm feeling very much like the lonely Jew of Salamanderland. I'm not an overly religious person, but I do enjoy reading my prayer book on Shabbat. And though my Hebrew is not up to par, I do try to whisper the Kaddish with my glass of wine. Doing this helps ground me, and helps me keep my life in perspective. But it also reminds me how I am the only Jew in a very large area. I've searched for others, I have not found them. There are only three Synagogues in Sweden. Non of which are within reasonable travel distance for Friday services. I hope someday to attend services in Malmö, but there is nothing planned of yet. For now it's just me and my living room, and a prayer book given to me by my father. In this book I found the prayer of the evening, which is helping me have a better perspective on my fibromyalgia:

O God, help me to remember the good I can do, even when I am weak and in pain. And help me, on this and every Shabbat, to see beyond my troubles, that I may be a blessing to others - and to myself.

I find it interesting how many people think it cliché to believe in god. How it's uncool to go to church every week, or read a prayerbook before you go to sleep. Personally I don't really care what religion you have, or who you do or do not believe in. As long as you are an honorable, good, loving person, you're ok in my book.

Love,
Mango Kitty

blöta kisse katterna ^^

We move in a week. IN A WEEK!!! I'm so excited but I'm also a wee bit overwhelmed by all of this. Today we got rid of our old couch and the empty space is making this move feel very very real. There's a good amount of packing still to be done, and then we have to spit shine the apartment before we turn the keys over. This in addition to going to school and doing homework and oh have I mentioned I'm going to be a bridesmaid two days after the move? GAH! It's all very good stuff, I just wish I had a little time in between all of it so I could actually breath...

I met with the principle at school today. Unfortunately there's not really anything they can do if I can't identify the jerks who have been harassing me. So next time it happens I have to actually look at their faces enough to remember it in a photo line up. Then once they know who to talk to, they promise they'll make their point known. We'll see what happens.

Bath day at the zoo went fine. I'm happy to say wet cat smells much better than wet dog. Looks funnier too ^^

Love,
Mango Kitty

the good, the bad, the horselike.

before I say anything else I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to my dear sister and her husband on the birth of their beautiful daughter!!!! So. SO exciting :)

In other news I, apparently, resemble an ugly horse. This bullying has to stop, the school has to do something about it. (No really, they do. It's the law) I have a meeting with the principle tomorrow morning, and it will be interesting to see what he has to say. Hopefully they will come up with a plan of action, because I cant keep going to school just to be called names and made to hate myself.

maybe I should bring Mi-Go into school tomorrow and let him eat their souls...?
One can only hope they're allergic to cats...

Love,
Mango Kitty

Möhippa!!!

Boy oh Boy did we have a weekend! As the one and only bridesmaid of Lovely Linda, it was my task to throw a bachelorette party, and I have to say I did a DAMN good job! We started off the day kidnapping Linda at her home at 10.00 and dressing her to the nines, with a pink whig and a pink tutu, and all the girls attending got a pink streak in their hair. (yes, even I wore pink in my hair!) After a champaign breakfast it was off to Hamsterland for the biggest salads ever served for lunch. Anywhere. Ever!

After lunch we gave our bride a few tasks to achieve. Some examples would be "Get a guy to let you wear his hat", and "Get a guy to show you his belly button" It was hilarious, and she cranked threw them like a true champion! After words it was off to a privet dance class to learn part of a choreographed hip-hop routine. Everyone did great! Then we went to where the wedding will be located, it's beautiful! Kind of like where our Swedish wedding was, but much bigger. It's going to be fabulous.

After dinner we went out to show off our dancing skills, though I hate to say we were out shined by The Hamster Man. I so wish we had gotten a picture or video of him, but he danced like a hamster. Seriously. I'm not kidding.

All in all it was a fabulous day, I'm so happy everything worked out and that Lovely Linda had a great time, even with her cold :)

Love,
Mango Kitty

Dear Mr. Buss Driver,

Dear Mr. Buss Driver,
If you turn down the wrong street, and back up in order to turn around, please make sure you do not back into oncoming traffic.

Moving on...

I need more energy than I have. Perhaps I've picked the wrong time to give up coffee... School is better, but it's still long hours (for me) and lots and lots of homework. Plus I'm going in to school longer hours Wednesdays so I can get extra help, and then there's an apartment to pack while still living in said apartment and trying to maneuver around boxes piled up to our armpits while dodging cats and, you guessed it, more boxes. Then there's the fact that I still have to go to school on the Thursday we're moving, then after school on Friday I'm going to Halmstad to be a bridesmaid in lovely Linda's wedding on Saturday then we're leaving the festivities early so that we can get back to Salamanderland to do a crazy super clean on the apartment Sunday before we have to turn over the keys on Monday morning on my way to school. Whew! All very good stuff! Do you think I can replace coffee with energy drinks? That's still better... right??? Maybe not...

I'm very excited for all of these things to happen, I'm just hoping I will be able to focus on one think at a time as it comes. One thing is for sure though, I'm taking my bridesmaids duties very seriously, and am preparing a foolproof emergency kit for all of Linda's bridal disasters, of which there will be none! Purely preventative measures! and have been training wearing high heels so that I won't fall in the impossibly high heels I'm meant to wear with my dress. I'll post a picture of them eventually, they're GORGEOUS!

Alright, off to read Arkan Asaad's "Stjärnlösa Nätter" (can you believe it? I'm READING! IN SWEDISH!!!)

Love,
Mango Kitty

goodbye space monkey

Today I finished my journal. :(

It may sound silly to be upset over this, but I grow very attached to my journals. They become a piece of me, I share things with them that I don't even share with my Viking, and I take them EVERYWHERE. This one has been with me threw good and bad, hospitals and vacations, work training and school. Thank you for letting me share my journey with you, you space monkey of a journal you <3


In other news, I'm homesick. I had a nice chat with Ima today, but I miss her hugs. I'm missing Noah growing up and I still haven't even met his little sister. I miss my sisters and wish i could be there to help when Baby Girl Provan enters the world. I want to babysit, I want to raid dads fridge, I want to go to the woods with Ima and Sue, I want to be involved with my family in a way that is impossible, because I live in Sweden. Not really walking distance to New York. I love Sweden, and I have no intention of moving back to the states, I just wish there wasn't an ocean in between me and my family.

Oh well, off to find a new journal I suppose...

Love,
Mango Kitty

attack of the killer tomatoes!!!

Man it's still Thursday... all day I've been thinking it's Friday. Hoping, Longing, Wishing it was Friday, but alas, here I am, clutched in the cold arms of weekday hell. Sigh.

School is crazy hard, but starting next week I'll be getting some extra help on Wednesdays, thank goodness. The days are long and there's HOURS of homework and it's soooo much more than I'm used to doing and whine whine whine.

Also, it is FALL. Really really fall with leaves on the ground and cold rain and it's dark before 20.00. BLAH! I hate the fall. It's so cold at nights now that I had to pick my tomatoes before they get all frozen. Hopefully they'll ripen up in the windowsill. It's also time to start breaking down my balcony garden, and find good homes for my plants. Unfortunately 80% of the plants I have out there are toxic to cats so I cant bring them inside. (Our monsters chew on EVERYTHING) Also, I think it's time to give up on my sunflower... my very tall, non blooming sunflower. What a failure. Hopefully it's not a sign of things to come!

Love,
Mango Kitty

Brains? What brains?

I have been studying ALL DAY from home and my brains have turned to mush. Icky, Sticky, Mush.
On Sunday Linda and I had a dress/veil making party at our place, the bridesmaid dress I ordered for her wedding is a full 8cm too long, so some serious hemm-age was needed. The cats, as always, were incredibly unhelpful.

Yesterday I had a meeting with my guidance councilor. She was really upset by what's been happening to me at school and assured me the school is taking this very seriously. All of the higher ups know about it, and I'm meeting with the Principal tomorrow about it. I'm supposed to walk to classes with someone always (the theory being they wont say anything if I'm with someone) and my guidance councilor is going to escort me to the buss at the end of the day. It feels ridiculous that these measures have to be taken, but it's a relief that they're taking me seriously. She said I was brave to come to her.
I also had a home visit from my therapist yesterday, who has given me the best advice so far on the subject. "Don't let them win".

My therapist was so happy to see Mi-Go, we actually got him threw her, she had another client with kittens and we said we wanted one so she picked out our little monster and brought him to us! She was very impressed with how big he has gotten, and how shiny he is. (he IS remarkably shiny) She also was won over by Indi's charms, flufferella spent most of the session trying to get into her purse and flopping all over everyone.

I'm so exhausted by all of this stuff. I'm ready for September to be over. Let move on to Halloween k?

Love,
Mango Kitty

promenad

I'm sorry, I had what I was going to write all planned in my head and then the cats came stampeding in and ran strait into the wall and I died of laughing. Thank goodness I have them, they're too ridiculous not to love <3

Instead of my planned witty remarks, I give you this:

Nils has been off kidnapping our friend for his bachelor party (which might I add started at 8am!) So I've been home by myself all day. I took a break from studying and went for a walk. These are some of the things I saw along my way.

"tjockis"

It Happened Again. I did really well in school today, I participated in class, even joined a study group during our lunch break. But it was ruined by another nasty comment. "Hej Tjockis! Hör du det?" Hey Fatty! Did you hear that? (that being me calling you fatty)

I really don't know what to do about this. I don't have the guts to confront them, honestly if I did I'd probably end up crying in front of them while mumbling incoherent Swedish which would make the comments worse I'm sure. I WANT to study and I WANT to succeed in school, but to be honest I never want to step foot in that building again. If this is what the first week of school is like, how the HELL am I going to do a year?

I'm frustrated by how much these comments effect me. I know that they come from these teenagers insecurities about themselves and so forth, but no matter how much I rationalize it, it HURTS. It just hurts... I have enough trouble with issues of weight and diet without them antagonizing it. I don't want to shut down and drop out of school, but the risk potential is growing, and that both frightens, and deeply saddens me. I don't want to care what they say, I don't want too let it get under my skin, but I cant help it. It makes me cry every time. I've emailed my guidance counceler about it, though I doubt anything can be done...

also, I'm giving up coffee.

Love,
Mango Kitty

stair-master

I'm happy to report that besides a small incident which involved me falling down the stairs, today has been a better day. I felt like I was going to be sick from nervs all morning getting ready but I made it on the buss and attended class like a champ. Then found out I'm very very bad at Swedish grammar (but I mean really, who is GOOD at Swedish grammar? I dare you to find someone) not really a surprise. Then while everyone was gossiping for an hour while the teacher was giving people their individual reviews, I did work. Which means I have no homework for that class tomorrow, or over the weekend. HA! Apparently not having any friends does have some benefit.

Tomorrow is another long day. On an entirely different note, does anyone have any suggestions for some nice non-toxic-to-cats plants?

Love,
Mango Kitty

meanies

Today has been a bad day. As I was walking to class this morning, I passed by a group of high schoolers. One boy shouted out "Tjokis" Fatty" and another called me a "Fat Ass". Then later today I was walking in the hall and passed two teenage girls who made pig noises as they passed and said "vilken gris!" what a pig!

I don't even know how to handle this. How can people be so mean? How can they think it's ok to hurt people who haven't done anything to them in such a way?

I wanted to leave school after it happened, especially after the second time today. I wanted to run away from the situation, but I didn't. I staid the full day. Now is the challenge of going back tomorrow.

ug... I feel just awful.

Love,
Mango Kitty

Glorious Wall Paper

What a cold and rainy day we've had. I'm seriously unimpressed with the weather. Though I suppose those dealing with Irene stateside have a tad bit more to complain about than me and my rainy day. But it wasn't all bad, I conquered another day in school and managed to find all my classes. Though to be honest two of the classes were in the same room, and the third was canceled for today. Ho hum.
BUT! Today we got wallpaper samples to pick out the walls for our new appaaaartment!
We are doing everything in our power NOT to have white walls, and I think we might actually succeed! Though I have a sneaky suspicion they will paint the hallway white whether we want them to or not. But that's ok, It's not like we'll be spending all our time in the hallway :) Tomorrow we're going to take another look at the apartment and take some measurements and pictures to start figuring out how our furniture layout will be and such. It's very exciting, it's feeling more and more real that we're finally moving away from immigrant-row! Yay!

Love,
Mango Kitty

Pimp My Bike

DUm dA dA DUm!!!!!!

Lady's and Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce my prized possession, Amanda!!! (Honestly, are any of you surprised I have a leopard spotted bicycle?) I got her for my birthday this year, and am getting better and better at riding her. I'm still not allowed to ride her on roads where there's traffic, which is probably a good thing. I am a tad bit wobbly still, but I'm getting there.


Nils is busy frying up the kantarell mushrooms we got from his Morfar (Ammi's father). It smells absolutely wonderful. He'll fry them all tonight and then we'll freeze them in plastic bags and use them threw out the winter and spring. The only good thing about the fall, is that it is the time of year when you can go into the forest and pick mushrooms. Yum Yum!!!








Love,
Mango Kitty

oops...

Day two of studying from home was, well... less productive. Don't get me wrong I got some good work done, but hit a crisis when I realized I had completely misunderstood what kind of book I was supposed to borrow from the schools library and prepare a report for. I chose a very serious, based on a true story novel, when it turns out I was supposed to pick a fairytale. CRAP! Thankfully Anna is a life savor and lent me a book of fairytales that I'm able to borrow and do the report with. So that will be my project for the weekend. Thank goodness I have until Monday to finish the assignment. I'm taking the evening off for my reality show guilty pleasure (So You Think You Can Dance) and possibly a bath. I've only got a month left of having access to a bathtub, got to make the most of it!

Love,
Mango Kitty

Homework

So today and tomorrow I'm studying from home. I turned the kitchen table into my study area, made a schedule, and today I managed to stick with it and be really rather productive. It looks like I am actually going to be able to pull this off. Though maybe that's a bit premature to say considering it's still the first week... At least I'm feeling optimistic about things, lord knows that doesn't happen often enough!

Next week school starts for real, including trying to find classrooms, remembering teachers names, and dodging angsty teenagers. We'll see how my mood changes after the second week but so far it's nice to feel good about school. Guess everyone who said it will go fine wasn't lying! Thanks guys <3

The real exciting news of today is that I spoke with our future landlord. We should be getting paint and floor samples for the new appartment sometime next week! And we have a move in date that is NOT the same day as Linda's wedding! YES!!! Oh things are starting to fall into place and it feels so good to be able to finely start calming the heck down.

Love,
Mango Kitty

Doctor Who Scarf

Some of you may be wondering what my current knitting project is. If you're familior with the tv show "Doctor Who", than you should remember the scarf! This is going to be my not so secret Christmas present for Nils, and am starting it now so that it should be done by Christmas. And yes it could take that long, as the origional scarf I am replicating is 4 meters long. This being done with size 4.5mm needles is quite the project but it's coming along. When it's finished it should look like this:

It's going to be a tun of work over many many hours, so he'd BETTER LIKE IT!!!

Love,
Mango Kitty

Beauty School Dropout

Last night i got inspired to cut my hair, and I think it turned out well. Not that you can really see my haircut in this picture, but you'll just have to trust me.











Then today when I was at Lina's we got inspired and I cut her hair too! I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. Perhaps I was a hairdresser in a past life?

It's starting to become routine that I go to Lina's place for fika after my therapy on Tuesdays. It's so nice to have fun right after working so hard in therapy. I always have a wonderful time with my Lu, and it seems that we never run out of things to talk about :)








In other news, my orchid is insane.















Onward to knitting!!!

Love,
Mango Kitty

School, day one

I diiiiid it I did it! I went to school, stayed the whole day, asked questions, loaned out pencils, and didn't hyperventilate or run away screaming!!! I has a proud :3
The first part of the day was an overview of the school and it's programs, where to go in case of a fire, be on time, use the library, that sort of stuff. (Gislaved's library was voted Sweden's best library a few years ago. It is reeeealy nice.)
The second part of the day was a vocabulary test. woo. This whole week is going to be full of tests to see what level the classes are at. I assume. I hope they're not just giving us tests to torture us... if that's the case it's going to be a long year...
At any rate, I met my teacher, she's nice. She used to work as a teacher in 3 different African countries. I think that's pretty neat. I'm going to get Tuesdays off from school so that I can continue my therapy in Värnamo, which is awesome. But it means extra home work, which is less awesome.

In other news, my finger is no longer purple and the antibiotics are working. The cats have been re-arranging Nils' gaming stuff which great gusto. Today we found a bag of miniature basing material moved from his desk in the living room all the way to the front door where we put the trash to be taken out. A hint perhaps?

Also, It is hard to make baked cabbage and potatoes, when you have no potatoes. Boo.

Love,
Mango Kitty

Roses

To pass the time, and to keep myself from freaking out over school (which starts TOMAROW!!!) I've taken to gardening. With duct tape :)

I really like how they have been turning out, I plan on decorating my black christmas tree with them this december. I think it will look very nice and festiva ala Mango Kitty!



You might think that I'm silly planning my christmas tree in August, but it seems to be the only thing that destracts me from the madness that will begin tomarow. Betwéen school, therapy, moving to a new place and attempting to have a social life I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Ah well such is life. ONWARD TO VICTORY!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Mango Kitty

My cats are brilliant!

I've been doing clicker training with the cats and it's really going well. Mi-Go is the star of the class, Indi is more looks than brains.


Mi-Go on the other hand is starting to advance to the hard stuff.




Clicker training is wonderful, and people who say you cant train cats are wrong. WRONG! Once you start working with them they pick it up really well and enjoy it. plus they get treats, which is never a bad thing in their minds :) The more you work with your cat the closer the bond you have and the more they want to please you. Not to say it fixes all problems, Mi-Go is still very. VERY. naughty, but it's getting better and he enjoys having things to do. He's soooo smart, too smart for his own good. Hence the naughtiness. At any rate, I love our little monsters, and am very proud of what they've managed to learn so far!

Love,
Mango Kitty

blogg-erific!

Now I sit with newly died purple hair and Mi-Go circling the couch like a furry little shark, inviting you to my new blogg. My intention is to keep you updated with the goings on here in Salamanderland, with our own little monsters, school, and with the whole H-burg gang. Also with my apparently never ending stream of illnesses and injuries.
The ouchie of the moment is a badly infected finger which occured two weeks ago when i was lifting, strangely enough, a pink bicycle. Part of my nail ripped off and then it got gross. I met with my Dr. today and got some antibiotics and i get to flush the puss out of it a few times a day. WoohoO!
In other news, I start school on Monday! oy vey... I am just about as nervous as I could be for this. I'll be taking Swedish A and Swedish B. This will take the full school year, and enable me to take the adult education classes I want to after words. I've got pencils, pens, a binder, and a customized notebook to bring with me.
This weekend will involve lots of cleaning (who wants to see a video of me doing dishes with only 9 fingers?) and crafting to try to keep my brain from exploding.^^


Love,
Mango Kitty