mousekakat

I have recieved ONE email and it has been responded to, as stated all over this thread and order page. Coins to me on the 8th, actually got them on the 9th, but most are packed, some are already shipped, the rest will get posted to site and mailed in the morning. I feel this is very close to expected deadlines and domestic orders should not have any trouble with pre-Christmas delivery. Thanks to all that ordered, anyone wanting blank space coins, I did order just a few in both Green with Red and Red with Green. these can be taken to most trophy shops for engraving. Thanks again, Tracy and Tank I can't speak for everybody, but I was worried that something had happened! I'm glad to hear you are okay! I'm with Joni! I'm glad things are ok, too. Sounds like things are returning to normal hectic chaos in your house Naomi

STOP DRIVING DISTRACTED, LOOK FOR BIKES! And in Swedish for good measure... Sluta köra distraherad, ser ut för cyklar!

Well, we combine some traditions here. It's a Swedish American relationship with us living in Sweden. We've learned to do things a mix. Traditionally you don't decorate in Sweden until RIGHT before Christmas, at least not the tree, but we have decided to let Hanna choose since she's the one with a birthday at the beginning of Christmas, so when we set up the tree is her choice. Santa doesn't come visit overnight here. Christmas Eve someone dresses up as a really LAME looking santa and comes and asks if there are any nice children in the room and gives out the Santa gifts then, but we've never done that. Instead we do do the Santa comes overnight thing, complete with cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph . I miss US Thanksgiving and Christmas food, Swedish holiday food is really different in comparison, but I've learned to provide a few things, like I make green bean casserole and have started making mashed potatos, and my FIL makes a sweet potato casserole since he discovered he liked it so much in the US, so we're slowly but surely bringing some food that I'm more accustomed to over to the this side of the pond . We've really just had to learn to combine traditions. Some of them are weird, some aren't, some are beautiful, like Saint Lucia processions and all the white lights everywhere and in everyone's windows... I wouldn't change things much at all here...except maybe getting rid of all the nasty fish dishes at Christmas and replacing them with a decent turkey, lol! God Jul, ya'll! Naomi

I learned something today, it wasn't a waste I have a pair of crampons but this is way more reasonable for my ventures plus cheaper. Now, I wonder if this will work on my truck tires instead of the studs You laugh, but dang, Steph, that ain't a half bad idea! This is the last season I'll be using this set of studded tires, new ones next year, but I'm missing a BUNCH of studs off of them, wonder if I could replace them with small screws, lol! How on earth did this Texas girl end up in the great white north! There is a saying that if God had intended Texans to ski he would have made bullsh** white, lol! Never in a million years did I think I'd be driving on snowpack roads and thinking 'gee, the roads are good today!' LOL! Naomi

Jim, Castleman, also has an alternative, check his page out

My package I sent came back because I put too little postage on it, grrrr... I'll get it back out in tomorrow's mail! Naomi

I want to make some nominations to some folks on this side of the pond... I moved here almost 10 years ago. Sweden, while a very beautiful country, can be quite cold, in more ways than one. Swedes generally grow up with a group of friends. The way it's done here is that they go to daycare and then on to school with the same group of friends, and most people build up a circle of friends from early life and stick with them and they are very tight. The people you work with are your co-workers and don't often become your 'at home' friends. It's not bad here, it's just different, and I've had to learn that different does not equal bad at all! Before we discovered geocaching I didn't have ANY Swedish friends. Sure, I had some acquaintances, but no REAL friends. People weren't rude or ugly or anything, it's just hard to 'break into' someone's circle. I had lots of American/English speaking friends, other ex-pats, but you need friends of all sorts, and when you hang out with the other ex-pats that it turns into a sort of 'misery loves company' club and you spend a lot of time bashing your new home, and that is just so counterproductive! The following people have let me in and become my first friends here in Sweden, my first real friends here! Solan109 and I started chatting well before we met in person. We both had in common that we had married someone from outside our own country and moved to his country and had kids... She's back in Sweden now, and has been for many, many years, but she reached out to me and we slowly became friends. Solan has been my friend now for well over a year and she was my first Swedish friend here . She came to the first event that we went to (I'll mention more on that in a bit) and she's come to every event that we've done, except for one. When I'm having a hard time due to my depression and sometimes 'just because' she leaves me messages for me to find when I wake up on MSN, just 'have a great day' or 'I'm thinking of you' type messages! Sol means 'sun' in Swedish and Solan is really my ray of sunshine here. She makes a HUGE difference in my life! Next is Mats from s.p.a.m. Talk about someone accepting you unconditionally! Mats accepts me for who I am, good and bad, hehehe, and he is always there to talk to. He comes and visits our family and stays for days at a time, and when he leaves we all miss him and his presence terribly! Mats is one of those visitors who actually can't stay too long, rare and hard to find! He works in Stockholm and when I go visit Micke when Micke's working there I can count on lunch with Mats and he and Micke grab dinner some nights. Somehow or another, without any effort on anyone's part, Mats has become a member of our family. I love him dearly, as do both my girls - not a day goes by without one of them asking about Mats or saying that they miss him, and Micke respects and likes Mats very, very much. When I recently had a very difficult period in life Mats was off work for a few days. He came up to us and stayed with me for an entire week while Micke was having to work in Stockholm and couldn't get the time off. He stayed with me and the kids the 3 days Micke couldn't get home, and he stayed with us for another 4 days afterwards, we had a great time, good company, caching, you name it. I can't think of a word for Mats besides my guardian Angel, there and watching out for me! Grodan, Karin... she's taught me so much about love, life and about limitations only being in your mind. She's taught me that there is no such thing really as too old for some things, and that you CAN handle what God gives you, even if you don't think you can! Karin and her husband are the proud parents of two great kids, Johanna and Simon, and they're expecting another one in the next few weeks. What is amazing and what I've learned so much from, is their beautiful son Simon. Simon has Downs Syndrome. He's the most incredible, amazing, sweet, lovable little baby! Karin, Björn, Simon and Johanna have shown me that as long as you have love, anything and everything is possible, the only limitations you have are the ones that YOU put on you! My next person is a little controversial to me, but I thought to include him anyway. Hasseper. Hasse is one of the most infuriating people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Hasse threw the first event for us when I went to Stockholm the first time as a cacher, he found the location and put the event together and it was a great time and we met so many people. Later, he came and spent some time with us when we had an event of our own in our little village, and we've met at a couple of other events. Hasse and I became friends... kind of, lol! He took me on a caching tour of Stockholm earlier in the fall, and we've gone out for pizza a couple of times when I've gone to Stockholm. What makes Hasse so great is how we get along in person. We share a lot of the same interests and I know that a couple of hours spent with him are going to be really enjoyable, comfortable, and fun, always interesting! He's a fellow coin nerd, and has helped me with a couple of ideas for coins, especially since a love of his is Archeology and I like to do coins that are based on the Viking era. He's really great to bounce ideas off of. Where things get infuriating with Hasse is that we SUCK as friends if we aren't in person! He's not a chatter, I am, I bug him, he ignores me, I get angry, we have a discussion, so forth and so on... but, that having been said, when we go ahead and meet for pizza or whatnot, we always end up having a good time, hehe. I guess variety is the spice of life, right? The good times must outweigh the frustrating times, though, because I keep going back and we keep grabbing that pizza and having a nice time in person... If I had to choose who to spend time with out of the four of these people, my choice would be to spend time with them together... if I couldn't, though, Hasse and Mats would be in a close tie on who to hang out with. Those two men are very special to me, the kids, and to Micke, too, and I just don't want to think of how it would be without them, or without Solan and Karin, either! So, these are my nominations on this side of the pond and just WHY they mean so much to me. If you've stayed with me this long and read my long post, I hope you don't mind me saying how I feel about these folks, and I thank you for taking the time to read about them and what it is that makes them each so special and each in their own way! Naomi :D

It's on the bear's back... took me a while to see it, too. It's using the bear like a slide

I want our GPS's and other things that were stolen from our car last weekend back, and the jerks who stole them to rot in h*ll! Other than that, peace on earth, good will towards man! Naomi

I'd really love to see a museum of coins set up somewhere, I guess at Groundspeak and maybe another one set up somewhere overseas? Something with as close to every coin minted as possible on display, trackable or not. Maybe coin designers/minters could do 2 extra coins of every coin and finish, minus the tracking number on them and donate them to the museum so that those who appreciate them could go and see them all, including the rare ones, and of course, each coin would have a little placard explaining the coin, the designer, and their reasoning behind it? Am I totally out in left field here? I know that there are the wiki's on coins out there, but I just thought it would be kind of neat to have someplace to go check them out in person if someone wanted to. Coins are small and don't take up THAT much space (yeah, I know, I've got them all over my house, too ) so it wouldn't have to be a huge building... Anyone else think it would be neat to have? Maybe we should drop a bug (no, not a travel one) into someone at Groundspeak's ear about this? It would require work to get copies of all coins that have been made into it, but maybe that could be a work in progress and we could all contribute to it when it starts to get the current ones into it? Naomi

Don't feel bad, Karin.... I don't think it's so much that as it is how it was done, done in secret, and the rules for how a coin is to be nominated or has to be paid to be nominated etc. It's not you, though!! Naomi

Thank you for putting it out there, Steph... I didn't know it existed, either, and it seems like just another clique, if you ask me... I guess I just dashed my chances of being nominated, lol! Naomi

Agreed

So much for that one N

Sunsetmeadowlark, send me your mom's name and address via pm or email... I'll send her a little something Naomi

Lots and lots and lots of your family live here in Sweden, so you're welcome to visit! We haven't turned away a visitor as of yet!

I think something might be wrong, to be totally honest. We haven't heard anything back from them on the name the baby cointest, either. Is anyone in their area who can give them a call and check on them? This really isn't like Tracy at all Naomi

Oh man, it really sucks that you were taken off that route! I know how slow the time around Christmas and after Christmas is for truckers, been there, done that! Well, make the best of it, enjoy your package and the holidays, at least you have a better chance of avoiding the holiday idjits out there on the road the next couple of weeks a bit better! Keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down! Naomi

Lori, I think it's danged fitting you got the first one, toots!! You ARE number ONE! Naomi... president of the LoriDarlin' fan club

I think I'm covered, Roddy! It really sucks that they stole the little eTrex that you gave us as a gift... but I think we'll be ok! YOU concentrate on things there! *hugs* Naomi

Now that I won't turn down! It's my fave movie and I LOVE the sound track!! Thanks a bunch! Naomi

I think that if I had gotten burned to that tune that I'd be contacting bbb, the legal stuff about mail fraud that someone else mentioned and just about anything else that I could within reason.... I've tried so hard to stay out of this, it's not my concern and I haven't lost any money through them, but I do sell coins, and on occasion through presale, and it makes the rest of us who try so hard and are legit look horrible!

A couple of quick nominations.... Castleman LoriDarling Karma Tsun LadyBee4tea Team Fireboy Pengo Family BLUEMOTMOT Fairyhoney Roddy Solan109 Mats from s.p.a.m. Grodan & fiabus Hasseper and about a million other people here! Everyone on my list has done something special, whether it's just been a friend when I've needed one, shown us kindness of one sort or another, or just become a part of our family.... they all have done something special and touched our lives!

Hehehe, It's ok, Hollora, lol! I'm being silly more than anything! DJ... you truly do rock in more than one way! No one send me any coins, I'm fine and my coin collection made it...although Micke picked on me when I sent him an SMS while I was in the apartment and he was at the car taking inventory asking him if my coins were ok... he laughed and called me a TRUE coin nerd...not concerned about the car, but danged worried about my collection! Hey, I've got my priorities straight, right I really am blessed with the people on this forum. Even the ones that seem to be a little sour at times, because they help remind me to stay grounded and to smile . Everyone here has their own contribution one way or another that helps bind us all together in good times and bad as a family of sorts... even if we ARE a bit dysfunctional at times, lol! Nuff said... all I can say now is thanks again for all the well wishes and smiles and for helping me feel a bit better about the crap events as of late and helping me remember to smile, that there are wonderful people out there! Naomi

Man, it must be the season or something. Our car was broken in to Saturday night and they took our yellow eTrex, too... no cables for it, just a piece of crap old gps that had no maps or any other bells and whistles and was good only to us or maybe another cacher, and they took our TomTom, too. It really pisses me off that the scum of the earth out there makes those of us who are good people into their target. Hang in there, you've got my sympathy! Naomi