Swedish Meatballs, Induction oven, more settling in!

Well, this week hasn't been adventurous as much as it has been work. Again I can't complain because the kids are amazing. They are helpful, playful and getting along great!

Alex has fallen in love with Swedish Meatballs (They just call them meatballs here). He has had them at IKEA a bunch and I bought frozen ones at the store for dinner one night and I think he was more excited about that night then the taco night we had before. 

The next night was a new barrier. As I almost set fire to the oven, you would think I have overcome my oven troubles, but I was so excited to get my pots the other day that I tried to make tacos that I had been promising Alex since we moved here. I went to turn in the stovetop, but it wouldn't work. Thomas took a look at it and he couldn't get it on either. (There was power, it just wouldn't start heating). He looked at the manual and it said it was an induction stovetop (which is supposed to be energy efficient) and the pots had to contain iron bc it worked as a magnet. Seriously!!! None of my pans worked!!!  Not one! That night i browned the beef in the oven (my new friend). We went to ikea the next day and bought a new set that thankfully did work, but it's frustrating to have all these pots that won't work. 

There are two levels on the oven not sure why, but one is convection too. 

Their trash bags for the kitchen are ultra tiny...

And take a look at the dishwasher hidden as a cabinet...

That's pretty cool. 

We bought a vacuum:) Ben was thrilled to be able to clean:)

And Thomas has had his own project...

He loves his electronics, he is mounting speakers to the front and rear if the room...

Here he mounted them on the staircase going downstairs. You can see the wire hanging below the railing...he will be running that to the basement floor where he will have some wireless system to play these back speakers...

The great news is that with all the converters that he bought before we left, we were able to hook up the kids TV and Xbox and Wii for their room. It actually worked and they were so excited to play. This saves us a ton of money from having to repurchase these things over hear, which leads me to my next subject...how much stuff costs!

I constantly convert things in my head to see what it would cost in dollars, I should stop doing that bc it is a lot!!! For instance, it seems like everything at the grocery store costs $4.00, they just change the quantity. About 10 thin slices of ham, half a bunch of broccoli, or a loaf of bread will cost you that much. Each cleaning product and hair care product seems to cost about $6.00, and if you purchase a half liter bottle of soda at the gas station, that's going to cost $3.50. Not sure how much gas costs yet, it says 14.48/Liter here but we have diesel and it seems to last forever. We have been driving for two weeks and haven't needed a refill yet. 

Thomas finally put his Weber together the other night and we purchased burgers and propane (it cost about $200 for the first tank, but refills aren't that bad). 

Anyway, after working hard all day on his speaker project, he went to start the grill, and found out that we need an adapter for the hose since the US version attaches to the propane differently, ugh!!! Another set back, but Thomas will look for an attachment today so maybe grilling tonight:)

Also, for those of you I promised to call/ FaceTime, things work very slowly here, especially in the summer when everyone is off. Internet was almost impossible to order and it will take about two weeks they say to get someone to install it, but we have no set time with anyone yet...Also TV is about the same, it may take two weeks as well. Ugh, living without these luxuries hasn't been thrilling, but making due. Also, we can't order a cell phone plan bc we need to have our Swedish Social Security number for 6 months and Thomas got one in June, but that isn't helpful until November. Our option will be to purchase prepaid cards for our phones until then, but we haven't done that yet...

Again, it's been great hearing from you all and we have been thinking of you! Hope everyone is enjoying the rest of this short summer we have left, it will go by fast. Email me or FB me if you get a chance to let us know how your family is doing!

My email is cara.duffaut@gmail.com if you don't already have it, and I will post a U.S. number as soon as the Internet is installed and you can call for free:)