I've been tagged by Amy to do this. At least I assume she meant me hahaha. I have to list 8 things that you probably don't know about me. I am not sure I can name 8 things so this may take a while

• I am a speed reader. I can read a 1000 page book in 5 days or less.
  
• i just started myspace
  
• i grow all kinds of herbs and also mints to make tea with. I also make Isak bring back cool and exotic teas back from Sweden.
• I am a kitchen gadget fanatic. I love buying new things and shop of pampered chef on ebay.
  
• I also love candles which drives Isak crazy, and oils and cones too. I just love how they smell and disperse throughout the house
  
• I can speak Swedish better than Korean thanks to my hubby.
• I am also addicted to a certain type of makeup that I was buying so much off, what else ebay, I finally stopped.
  
• isak and i h ave planned trips for next year, locally, 1 week to the Keys and 1 week to Washington State. I want to go places i have always wanted to before we move to Sweden.
  

I don't have 8 people to tag so feel free to repost

It has been a little over 2 weeks since my hubby has gone back to Sweden. Even though we are married, he cannot work in the US as he only has a student visa. Sooooo, he flew back on May 14th and we have been talking everyday at least 4 or 5 times!! I will be flying over to meet him leaving on July 27th and arriving on the 28th. THEN we fly to Italy on August 1 and staying until the 14th!!!! Two blissful weeks in Italy with my hubby for our delayed honeymoon. we have already reserved the rooms and villa in Tuscany. We will be arriving in Rome for 3 days, staying in a villa in the Tuscany region from the 4th to 11th then to Venice for a night and back to Rome for a couple more nights. Back in Sweden from the 14th to 26th when we fly back to the US and back to reality.

We hope once we come back, we can start the application process to get him residency status. that way when he graduates in december, he can get a job without any sponsorship type situations.

well, that is a quick update, i will definitely write more when we come back from our travels!!

0k here it is finally, photos from the st patricks day here in Chicago, IL about a month and a half late. I have included other photos from the downtown area as well. On photos says Du är vacker which means you are beautiful in Swedish, another shows the Chicago sign (i think it is a theater) and the famous corncob apartments/parking garage. You may have seen them recently in an Allstate Insurance commercial.

On a side note, two weeks from tomorrow Isak will be flying back to Sweden and then the countdown begins to when I will fly over to stay a month in Europe, 2 weeks in Sweden and 2 weeks in Italy, or Greece or someplace because it seems we are not finalized on the location. I say Italy and we can go to Greece some other time. After this summer will be Isak's last semester at school. We will start to work on his residency status so he can work here then after graduation, he has the fun of looking for a job. Isak hopes to work somewhere downtown because he can access the El and/or bus. Then after a few years, we will see where we will be. IF the Olympics come to Chicago, I hope we are still here in 2016 because that will be fun!!

My really good friend is flying in Memorial day weekend. We already have a lot planned that can change. I will take her downtown, go to China town, Greek town, take her by Oprah's studio, maybe Swedish town since it isn't far and of course she will see Korea town since that is the neighborhood we live in. It will be so wonderful to have her here.

OK, it has been some time since I last posted, I wanted to put up some pics from the St. Patricks Day event here in Chicago. I was working but Isak went down and took some photos. For those not from the area, they turn the river green and have all sorts of crazy things going on. I will put them up soon. Isak is getting ready to head back to Sweden on may 14th but I will be joining him the end of July and then spend two weeks in Sweden and two weeks in Italy. Things won't be too boring as we just got another student from Korea. he just arrived on 4/14 and it sounds like he wants to stay for about 10 months. That will be nice to have someone long term. Isak just finished taking this really hard comps test, he needs to pass if he wants to have a degree in sociology. Now he has a few papers to write up and spend some time together before he flies off.

time to get back to work. i will try to post the pics from 3/17/07

here are some photos taken when we went to a couple hockey games. I remember the second game was Chicago Blackhawks versus the Minnesota Wild. I cannot remember the first game. We went at the beginning of January so it has been a while. Also, the one photo shows the "hockey pucks"of the team which helps the memory. We are hoping to hit some more games before the season ends but school is taking more of Isak's time.

On a side note, the weather here is crazy. We got to leave around 1:30 this afternoon because the snow would not stop falling. I think they said we received about 3-5 inches. Someone also told me that northern Minnesota had a temperature of -31 F!! That is like arctic temps. Unbelievable. It was -1F today about -17 to -19C.
I am not sure how much more I can take. I am so thankful for having a garage. I still have to walk outside to get to the vehicle but I don't have to shovel it out of snow. The pipes to the washer froze so our landlord came over today to get that fixed. and that is about the extent of our happenings. As you can see, nothing too exciting. Next week is Valentines and in March we will be celebrating our 6th month anniversary. Time has really flown. I am not extremely happy because it just means that much closer to Isak heading back to Sweden. I will be following eventually but i hate when we have to be apart.

ok, so it has been a while since I have posted. now that the holidays are over and we are getting back into the grove of things, I will post some pics. We got our first Christmas tree together and my first real tree. It was so much fun decorating it. We decided to buy one new ornament a year. Isak went downtown to surprise me with the first one. It is a wedding related one, a wedding dress and tux together.
The next several pictures are from when we went downtown walking around. One picture is taken from the base of the Sears Tower. It was windy that day and when you looked up, it was as if the tower was swaying. It made me so dizzy. Then as we walked around we found this park area with the huge Christmas tree so we took a few photos there. There was tons of other people there as well taking pictures. Inside this fenced in area they had set up a train set and a little town so we grabbed a few photos of that as well. It was so nice to have Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year together. Christmas we did Swedish style. We has Ham, meatballs, Janssons, Sill, red beet salad which we made ourselves!! and don't knock it until you try it. Lingonberries, egg nog, glogg, julmust (swedish soda) lucia buns, and prince korv (mini hotdogs). It was so delicious!!. Thanksgiving we went to Ohio and had our last reception for the wedding. I regret not wearing my dress. isak looked so good in his tux. we danced, had wonderful food and saw many relatives I had not seen for a while. I was so happy to introduce my husband to them. We didn't do anything special for New Year's. We had planned to go downtown for the fireworks but it was drizzly all day so I didn't want to stand in the rain.

Isak is now back in school, I am back to work. I cannot believe it is almost February!!!

This past Monday Isak and I picked up our marriage certificate. I also ordered my new social security card. Then on Tuesday when i went to work i faxed like a mad woman to all the places that required a copy of our certificate before they would change my name. I love getting mail that says Kimberly Karlsson. I love that Isak is caught up with his school work so we have some time to spend with each other watching movies and just hanging out. Life is back to normal now, it was a whirlwind for a while. Now, autumn is upon us and soon snow. I will love this winter because Isak will be staying this time rather than going back to Sweden. We can organize our photos and work on some other mini-projects around the house. maybe head downtown and walk around mag mile (Michigan Avenue for those that do not live in Chicago). Work is so much better, I am back to regular hours, 8-430 and practically leave on time so i can get home at a decent hour. Speaking of work, I need to go to a meeting.