Easter Holiday Meetups with Friends in Spring + Surprise Winter
[Photos from Saturday 26 to 29 March 2016. Started writing post late 31 March 2016. Bye snow. ]
Easter is the only holiday to come with a guaranteed five-day-long continuous holiday. I wish Christmas-time came wrapped in a similar package.
Since I was still on crutches, we didn’t do much of anything, but we did manage to meet up with some friends, use our hot tub for the first time this year, and then scratch our heads as winter suddenly appeared again as we headed back to work on Tuesday morning. (9 images total)
Saturday 26 March 2016
A small part of the expansive view our friends have out of their kitchen windows.
Confirmation Party – The Arnar Version
[Photos from 24 March 2016, posted online 25 March. Progress?]
Today we attended the confirmation party of Arnar, the son of some friends of ours. It was a lovely party, and we had a great time. (Meanwhile, my brother Bjarni was competing in men’s physique, and he won his category! Yay for him!!!)
Usually I end up being a photographer at events like these, but since I can’t really walk about, I decided against taking my big camera. Alas, because apparently I can’t help myself, I still ended up snapping photos on my phone. (15 images total)
The newly confirmed boy with his mom and dad. His two younger brothers were patiently waiting on the side, while I snapped this on their camera.
Screwed
[Photos from Tuesday 22 March 2016, posted online 23 March 2016. It’s hard to sulk with all this spring in the air.]
The day started out with terrible news from Brussels, so spirits weren’t exactly running high when I showed up at the hospital after lunch. The aim was to finally get a screw removed so that I could begin to put full weight on my foot, and begin to get rid of my crutches. Yes it’s been 10 weeks since my breakage!
But no, the doctor decided not to remove the screw. Perhaps it’ll go next week, or the week thereafter, I’ll have to wait and see. I will readily admit that I’m disappointed, and wallowing in self-pity a little bit. Hopefully it’ll pass soon.
The culprit was the shrinking-but-not-fully-healed hole/dip in the big scar (photo is from the England post), formed by a large chunk of clotted blood which got lodged there somehow. Apparently doctors don’t like cutting into legs that have open wounds still (it’s open enough to discharge liquid if squeezed). So, the hole got cleaned, bandaged, and I have strict instructions to leave it be. No scratching or whatnots. Sigh.
Feeling a little lost, and not quite up to going back to work with my metaphorical tail between my legs, I got Finnur to pick me up, and spent the rest of the afternoon working in his office. It was a nice change, although apparently I disturb Finnur’s otherwise very peaceful office-existence! 🙂
Meanwhile, Bjarki went to spend quality time with his grandparents, and he’ll spend the next few days at the summer house with them. I hope they have a lovely time! (7 images total)
The happiest photo of the day: Bjarki with his grandma filling up plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt this coming Sunday. These are the eggs we brought back from the US after numerous fun Easter egg hunts there.
A Weekend of Dinners
[Photos from Friday 18 to 20 March 2016, posted online 22 March 2016. Stuffed to the gills!]
Three nights of dinner engagements make for a busy but a fun weekend!
Friday I went to celebrate the 40th birthday of a friend of mine, Saturday we visited Solla and Gunni, and then on Sunday we visited Guðrún and Snorri.
This coincided with spring arriving suddenly, so out of nowhere I was desperate to start tidying up and cleaning now that all the dust mites are screaming for attention. With a bum leg not much got done, but at least the Christmas Cards got taken down from the wall in the hall and album-ed, Finnur attacked the garage, and quite a few death traps got removed. 🙂 (15 images total)
Friday 18 March 2016
The birthday girl!
Fever, Snow, Coffee, No Snow
[Photos from Friday 11 to Monday 14 March 2016, posted online 14 March 2016. Now which date does this belong to, once I restore time?!]
It sounds like viruses are swirling all around these days. This past Friday one of them hit our humble abode, when Bjarki came down with a fever, headache, stomach ache, and an unending thirst for more computer time.
I will admit that I was pretty glad I had an excused to take Friday off from work, since I’d mentally (as well as physically) limped through Thursday. My work stamina is still pretty blah apparently.
The biggest thing that ‘happened’ on Friday was that Emma discovered we have a backyard that she can play in after daycare! It was not obvious to her before because it was always dark out, but now we’ve got happy brightness past dinner-time. Yay!
Saturday was a huge nothing-whatsoever-happened-day, but on Sunday the whole family (me included!) ventured out on a library/coffee house-run. We all desperately needed to get out of the house, but decided against actually infecting the friends that had invited us over for dinner, so downtown to infect strangers we went!
Monday rolled around with Bjarki still at home, but this time Finnur took home-duty, while I escaped to work (funny how that works!). Oh, and after two days of thaw, our backyard is now quite snowless for the first time in over three months! (15 images total)
Emma, having recently discovered this “backyard” thing of ours, where she can go out and play by herself, without us having to go out too (which we can’t/won’t because we’re lazy/it’s cold/feet don’t work). Taking photos through the window works though!
Emma’s 3D Art & Rainy Windows
[Photos from Monday 7 March 2016, posted online 10 March 2016. Feeling speedy!]
Emma’s newest thing is to stack sticky things together. On the plane to and from England for example, she went through a whole sheet of stickers, and stuck them all on top of each other on a piece of paper, instead of spreading them out.
This wet and windy afternoon, she thus took it upon herself to fetch paper, scissors, and glue, and created quite a stack of glued-together paper-pieces. The mother (that would be me) dutifully documented the results of her hard work, as well as the rain streaming down the living room windows. (4 images total)
Emma (in photosmile mode) with her 3D artwork.
Dinner with Ragnar, Agnes and their Munchkins
[Photos from Sunday 06 March 2016, posted online 10 March 2016. It hasn’t even been a whole week!]
Ragnar and Agnes (or Agnar and Ragnes, as I usually miscall them, oh brain!) are old friends of Finnur’s. They’re good fun to be around, but live psychologically far away, so we never used to meet up with them much. (They live only 30 minutes away by car, but it involves driving across barren land towards Keflavik airport, making the trip feel much longer.)
Then, during a stroke of genius, we started planning our next meeting before the current one ended, some 6 weeks in the future. Of course, rescheduling happens, but once it’s on the calendar, chances are we’ll actually meet up sooner rather than never.
As it happened, it was Agnes’ birthday (!!!), but they still came over, and we all had a lovely time.
Some photos from my corner on the couch follow… (11 images total)
Agnes, the birthday babe, with her second born.
My 39 Year Old Birthday
[Photos from Tuesday 01 March 2016, posted online 09 March 2016. I’ve been sleeping off the sugar overdose.]
My last birthday before the big Four-Oh happened the other day.
I spent most of the day lounging on the sofa, but when everybody came home after school and work, I got flowers, chocolate, and a cake! (11 images total)
Mommy got flowers!
Winter-Break Trip to England
[Photos from 24-29 February 2016, posted on 01 March 2016. Yes, it’s my birthday! 🙂]
Long before I fell and broke my ankle, we’d bought tickets for the whole family to visit England over the kids’ winter school break.
All the doctors I talked to leading up to the trip said that I should be able to travel, but I was doubtful because my foot would get swollen and painful very fast when down low. Then the cast came off (on a Tuesday) and I realized that the majority of the pain was from my swollen skin pushing up against the cast, so the odds of going to England the next day went from 10% to 90%.
Then I looked at the seats I’d booked, and realized that we’d have two adjacent window seats on the correct side of the plane, meaning I could keep my leg on the armrest in front of me. Thus I decided I would go after all, because a change of scenery is always a good thing. Happily, we discovered that Easyjet has pretty flimsy seats, so there was plenty of space for my leg. (Icelandair has bulkier seats, and the gap between the seatback and the fuselage is smaller.)
Also, compressure socks are amazing! (41 images total, including TWO PHOTOS of SCARS 13 images down as Friday begins)
Group photo, taken by Finnur, as we were about to head for the airport.
Emma’s 3rd Birthday Party
[Photos from 21 February 2016, posted on 25 February 2016. In a galaxy far, far away…]
We celebrated Emma’s third birthday with a family party. It was pretty interesting trying to get everything done with one adult hopping about on one foot, but we managed.
Photos! (28 images total)
Three-year-old Emma, getting sung for.