Another year has raced past and winter is once again  here with its dark cloak. November really is a dark month but soon all houses will be lit up with Advent stars and lights.
We are all well. The beginning half of the year was very hectic. I worked fulltime in Falun to try to get my G.P. specialization finished. It was a tough time for all of us. Simon and I were away 11 hours a day and we hardly saw the girls in an awake state during the weekdays. But in May I was at last finished. It only took 22 years! Since then I have had a half time locum here at the local vard central( a sort of state G.P. practice) in Gagnef. One week I work 2 full days and the following week I work 3 days and only one night duty per month! The rest of the days the girls and I have fun at home. This locum has really been an answer to prayer. The locum is for 1 1/2 years, after that I don´t know what will happen.

Simon has carried on at VBBViak, civil engineering consultants in Falun. The going is still tough as the municipalites don´t have any money and so they cannot buy work from the consultants. He is still mostly into water but getting more and more involved in the GIS side of things. The travelling time to Falun is a real drawback. Simon has worked out that he sits in the car to and from work 350 hours a year = 8 working weeks!

Nellie is now  5years old and becoming more and more harmonious while Ella at the age of 3 seems to have hit a new temper stage. She really explodes but it blows over quickly thank goodness. Nellie has started violin lessons with the Suzuki method. This means that parents have to play as well. With three violin novices, Nellie, Simon and Gunilla and Ella on a selfplaying toy violin you should hear the din. It sounds dreadful…. But we have a lot of fun! I am so thankful that we don´t live in a flat. Ella loves playing circus and throghout the day keeps on changing into some new strange stage garb..

This summer was unbelievable. It was one of the hottest summers ever recorded and we revelled in it. We swam and swam and lived in shorts for weeks on end. Simon´s sister Claire with husband Ian and three boys, Thomas, Matthew and Peter came from Scotland and stayed with us for two weeks. At the same time, Simon´s niece Robyn bravely came by herself from Canada and stayed three weeks. We had such a lovely time together swimming, cycling, camping out and just enjoying being together. The house became terribly empty once they all left. However since their visit Nellie has been speaking English( Scottish to start with! ) and now Ella is also trying hard to speak English. Simon had just about given up hope of getting English speaking daughters. Their English also improved after a week´s visit to U.S.A. in Sept. Simon went to a water conference in Norfolk Virginia while I and the girls visited my good friend Lisa. It was my first U.S.A visit and was a real eye opener. We came home with peanut butter, maple syrup and 5 foot balloons!

We still go to the nearby Baptist church where we lead Sunday school once a month. But we get our most important fellowship from a prayer group. We are five couples who meet every Sunday evening in each others homes. Simon has done quite a bit of running this summer and has now started indoor bandy. I used to go to gym but I injured a knee so now I definitively don´t get enough exercise. The snow which came earlier has melted and even the whole lake which had frozen over is now open water again.  So winter activities have not started .