11/27/2013

The flu

I promise I will get back to you with a long, detailed post about the Hindu Brahmin wedding in a remote village we've just been to.
With all the worrying about my mom and the bumpy trip to and from the wedding I've got the flu or at least flu symptoms of exhaustion.
Give me a couple of days and I'll get back as good as new.

11/26/2013

Mom

Thank God! Mom is much better. She had blood clots going from her legs, up and through her heart and lungs, probably because of the long flight home, but Swedish health care managed to dissolve them successfully.
Her survival is a little bit of a miracle. First of all it could have happened during the flight and who knows if she would have got medical attention in time and second that my father was at home when the bloot clots reached her heart.
He is normally at the farm for hours at that time, but this day he was home so he could call the ambulance.
There is a God, or two, out there and they clearly wanted us to have our mom in our earth life for a few more years.

11/24/2013

Hospital

I'm so worried! Today my dear mom went with ambulance to the hospital.
They think she had a heart attack or a blood clot in her lung or both. Right now they examine her.
She was feeling sick when she and my mother-in-law left us a few days ago, but we never thought it was this serious.
I'm so greateful that we parted on good terms, with hugs and tears.
Please send your prayers to my dear mom. She is only 65, so it's way to early for her to leave us and this world.

11/21/2013

Tears

Today we left our mothers at the airport and it was so emotional to separate from my mother.
We cried and cried. It felt as if she took a piece of my heart with her.

11/20/2013

Bye bye!

Tomorrow our mothers are going back to Sweden. It feels so sad and it will be so empty here in the house.
Who will cook lunch and dinner? Who will do the dishes and the laundry? Who will help Leya with the homework and read her a bedtime story every night?
It's been great to share our daily life with our moms for a few weeks and now we'll start saving for a summer vacation in Sweden next year.

11/19/2013

Christmas greeting card

Every year my mom makes personal Christmas greeting cards and it all started with a photo outside the church where I had been baptized, 43 years ago.
This year mom is planning on having one photo in our house and one in my sister's.
A very interesting idea since our home is full of colors and my sister's is a hundreds shades of white, which is very popular in Sweden.
Here is Leya and our sweet Nani. (This is not the actual photo).

11/17/2013

Birthday party

Yesterday we celebrated Leya all day long.
Party with our Nepalese family and our landlords with sausages and cake and the Swedish game "fish pond" when you fish for candy.
We ended our day with a fantastic buffet at Hyatt Regency Hotel.

11/15/2013

Leya's birthday

I can't believe it's seven years since I had an emergency c-section and Leya come in to our lives.
Date: 16 November 2006
Time: 12.28 pm
Length: 52 cm
Weight: 4464 gr
She was born a Thursday at lunch time. Since we have a tradition in Sweden to eat pancakes on Thursdays and pancakes are my favorite food, I will never forget it.
A few happenings from the delivery day I'd like to share with you:
1. The only time I was angry with Nicholas was when we drove to the hospital and he drove through an intersection too fast.
2. My mother was my doula, read more about a doula here. Since I knew Nicholas needed to smoke from time to time I wanted someone to stay next to my side at all times and my mom did a fantastic job.
3. At one time I had two midwives, one doctor and the head doctor in the room trying to figure out what was wrong.
4. The doctor tried to pull out Leya's hair with tweezers when she was still inside the uterus even though both my mother and I firmly told the doctor I never had an IUD (spiral).
5. When I was in very painful labour I screamed about next time we were going to have a kid. (Very strange behaviour!)
6. I fell in love with the laughing gas.
7. The doctor said it felt like stitching in jelly when he and another doctor spent two hours (it normally takes one hour and one doctor) to close my stomach.

11/14/2013

Shipments

Today we had the most international shipping day ever.
We sent parcels to:
Australia
Canada
Israel
Slovakia
Sweden
UK
Ukraine
I've always loved to travel, so our goods are making the travelling for me.

11/13/2013

Prana nail mat video

I'm so happy about the final result of the Prana nail mat video.
Watch it here.

11/12/2013

Beetle

We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw this yellow old beetle cruising down the street. Cool!

11/11/2013

Dots

The dalmatian puppies have dots now. They are adorable!

11/09/2013

Hackers

I really try to walk through life not hating anyone, but sometimes it's impossible.
Someone in South Africa has hacked my computer and now they have started to send inquiries for money to our customers.
I think one of our customers has paid and she was furious with me and said I was a scam.
At first I felt offended and couldn't believe what she was talking about, but it came clear soon enough.
Tomorrow morning my computer is going straight to the doctor to get cleaned from all introduers.

11/07/2013

Tibetan refugee camp

20 min by car from Pokhara is the Tibetan refugee camp Hemja.
I met two lovely Tibetan ladies in Pokhara last time we were there and this time I asked if we could come to their homes and see how they lived.
We took a taxi. Crowded, but happy people in the backseat.
Hemja was a typical village, with one storey houses. So quiet that you could hear the nature whisper. A big difference from a Nepalese area.
We had Tibetan salt, butter tea made like old butter making in a tube with a stick pushed and pulled, up and down.
Then we had a homeparty in the backyard. Tibetan jewellery are so beautiful!
We finished our visit by particapating in the afternoon puja i the village temple. It was magical with the colorful interior and the chanting monks.

11/06/2013

Dhai puja

Yesterday was the last day of the Tihar celebrations and we celebrated dhai (brother) puja (religious ceremony) with our friend Krishna and his family.
Krishna's family are buddhists and Tihar is a hindu festival, but that didn't stop them.
The brothers are sitting to the left and the sisters are preparing to the right.
There are many elements in this puja. Flower pedals on the head, water in their ears and a special tikka in the forehead with many colors, the Nepalese topi hat, sweets and gifts.
This is the smallest brother.
We also got a brother tikka.
The whole, happy family.

11/05/2013

Fewa lake

A trip on Fewa lake is a peaceful must when going to Pokhara.
So silent and relaxing.
This time we hired a boat with a driver, or should I say a paddler, and that was worth the money.

11/04/2013

Cow

Today we tied our blessed threads around a cow's tail.
The cow happened to have three legs and she was very stubborn.
With the help of cauliflower and a man passing by, we finally managed to tie the threads.
Now we come directly to heaven when we die. What a relief!

11/03/2013

Lakshmi

Today we went by bus to Pokhara for a few days vacation with our mothers and friends.
We celebrated the Hindu Goddess Lakshmi who stands for wealth, money and success, on our hotel balcony facing the relaxing Fewa lake.
Tomorrow we have to find a cow to tie the bracelet thread we got a few months ago, around the cow's tail.
Our friend Krishan has his Thakali restaurant here in Pokhara and apparently his neighbor has cows.
But first we'll rent a boat and paddle out on the lake. We hope for clear, warm weather.

11/02/2013

Finally

In the afternoon today, they finally stopped singing.
According to people who know, they should have kept on going for 7 days and 7 nights, but they must have miscalculated the time because they kept on for 8 days and 8 nights.
But now it's over for this year and for next year we hope they will do the 7 (or 8) days puja in a house far away from ours.

Tihar

Today we started celebrating Tihar, Diwali in India, by celebrating the dog.
We went around the neighborhood to give our dog friends a tikka, a red colored rice paste, and flower pedals on their head and biscuits to eat.

11/01/2013

Oh no!

Today we moved back home and to our desperation they are still singing in the neighbor house. Exactly the same songs as when we left last Monday.
I'm sorry to say it, but they are crazy.
I think their god/gods/goddess/goddesses will still love them even if they stop singing right NOW!