I booked tickets this morning to go to Stockholm in April! It will be a short trip–I’ll be there the afternoon of April 2 (a Friday), spend the night at my friend, Helene’s, then fly back to Skellefteå the next afternoon–but at least I’ll have the chance to catch up with my Stockholm friends! The best part is that Olof offered to keep the kids here at home, so I’ll be able to make the trip all by myself … I can hardly wait!

In other news, I started making a mosaic tile with our house number to hang up on our outside wall (I’m sure those things must have a name, but I’ve never known what it is). It’s much easier than I expected — I got the directions from Marie’s Mosaic Minds craft column. Right now I’m waiting for the tile glue to dry, and I may be able to do the grout tonight, if Olof goes to the grout store. Otherwise it will have to wait.

Tomorrow is our trip to Umeå for our interview with Migrationsverket (the immigration authority). It’s been snowing and blowing like crazy for the past couple of days, so I’m not really looking forward to a long car trip on these roads, but there’s no way to avoid it. (Side note: You know you’ve been living in Europe too long when you refer to a one-hour drive as a “long car trip.”) After the interview, we’re visiting our friends, Andrea and Matt, and Andrea’s son, Zach, so that should be fun.