It never gets old to say that “God works in mysterious ways.” One of Kory’s bosses, Jonathan, came over this morning to drop off a little Christmas bonus. To say his bosses are “nice” is an understatement. Kory has tremendous respect for them and thinks they are both fantastic young men with a heart for God and he very much likes working for them and getting to know them. Well, Kory told Jonathan all about how God closed the door on us buying The Sinking Houses but how it’s just killing him because he knows it’s a gold mine for someone, just not us. And only then did Jonathan tell Kory that both he and his partner, Espen, really wanted to put in a bid to buy the houses as well, but they didn’t want to keep Kory from getting them because they knew how excited he was about them. What a surprise it was to hear that one. So Kory showed him all the numbers we ran on the costs and told him all we found out in the process of investigating it and now it seems, they will be buying them for the price we bid, instead of us! What a miracle that is for all of us. And the neighborhood will still be thrilled that the Kommune isn’t going to buy them. (We were kind of sweating that one because we knew we were letting people down.) So Kory will be both working for, and renting from Jonathan and Espen. It harkens back to the days of the “company store” but as long as they don’t buy out the local grocer, we should be OK. This whole thing couldn’t have a happier ending. Hallelujah!
And today we said goodbye to George, the loveable pup we got “for Christmas.” It was good to be with a dog again but I won’t miss the dog hair or early morning walks. Kaleb was so funny when figuring out how much to charge for his services. The first time he dog sat back home he told the woman how much it was and then he said, “But really, I should be paying you,” because he loves to be with dogs so much. At home it’s about twenty bucks a day for a kennel, so Kaleb charges a dollar a day to ensure he gets a lot of business (and he does – sometimes we have up to four dogs at a time.) Well, with today’s exchange rate he would charge seven kroner a day, if he were to stick to the ole’ dollar a day rate, but you most certainly CANNOT buy anything for seven kroner here in Norway so Kaleb had some tough calculations to figure out about what a dollar equivalent was in purchasing power, not just conversion rate. He finally came up with 15-20 kroner a day as his dog-sitting fee and when he told George’s owner they owed him 75 kroner, he was more than a little shocked when they gave him 250 kroner instead. (Typical kennel rates here in Norway are 200 kroner a day.) So Kaleb was floating only temporarily until he remembered he has to put it all in savings because it was really Kory and I that did the work – he just slept with the dog. But as a result of Kaleb’s latest dog-sitting experience, he did come up with some pretty funny inventions, which he wrote about today in the upcoming edition of The Weakly Puppy. We worked on that this morning so it would be a “wrap” before the holidays kick in as it gets published on Friday. Kaleb told me that he really feels he “doesn’t have time” anymore to continue doing the publication but he just can’t bring himself to stopping it because so many people enjoy getting it and he doesn’t want to let them down. He says he will NEVER stop writing it. It will soon be two years since he started it and it still makes me laugh out loud. Funny boy.
Well this afternoon we had a little cabin fever so we set out for the mall. Kaleb really wanted a book that Tobias told him was available in English at a store at the mall, so he was chomping at the bit to buy it with his birthday money. (I’m sure glad I didn’t get it for him already for a Christmas gift.) We came home, made tacos for dinner, heated up some glogg and started decorating the tree! (Kory went and “got” one last night – somewhere.) Our tradition back home always takes an entire day to get the tree as we drive up to the Mt. Baker National Forest and get our $10 permit and cut down a fresh one. But they don’t really allow that kind of thing here, so one just magically showed up at our house and I’m not asking any questions. (Trees cost about a hundred bucks and I don’t want to know the details around this one.) We shipped over some favorite tree decorations and we bought some here and we now have the finest looking tree in the neighborhood. Well, I guess that’s because it’s the ONLY tree in the neighborhood at this point – no one puts them up until tomorrow – but I couldn’t wait one more day. (I hope the Christmas police don’t come arrest me or something as the number of offenses I’ve committed against these precious Norwegian traditions are mounting.) We did buy the lights that look like candles, and I like them a lot. When Kory was a kid they lit real candles on the tree and danced around it. The cords attached to our lights prohibit any kind of dancing, so we just sat in front of it and drank more glogg. Then we popped popcorn and watched another Christmas movie (Home Alone 2) I downloaded from some European internet site that is probably illegal and will now go on my “naughty” list for the year. I’m anticipating a lump of coal anyway because I couldn’t think of anything to buy myself for Christmas.
And today we said goodbye to George, the loveable pup we got “for Christmas.” It was good to be with a dog again but I won’t miss the dog hair or early morning walks. Kaleb was so funny when figuring out how much to charge for his services. The first time he dog sat back home he told the woman how much it was and then he said, “But really, I should be paying you,” because he loves to be with dogs so much. At home it’s about twenty bucks a day for a kennel, so Kaleb charges a dollar a day to ensure he gets a lot of business (and he does – sometimes we have up to four dogs at a time.) Well, with today’s exchange rate he would charge seven kroner a day, if he were to stick to the ole’ dollar a day rate, but you most certainly CANNOT buy anything for seven kroner here in Norway so Kaleb had some tough calculations to figure out about what a dollar equivalent was in purchasing power, not just conversion rate. He finally came up with 15-20 kroner a day as his dog-sitting fee and when he told George’s owner they owed him 75 kroner, he was more than a little shocked when they gave him 250 kroner instead. (Typical kennel rates here in Norway are 200 kroner a day.) So Kaleb was floating only temporarily until he remembered he has to put it all in savings because it was really Kory and I that did the work – he just slept with the dog. But as a result of Kaleb’s latest dog-sitting experience, he did come up with some pretty funny inventions, which he wrote about today in the upcoming edition of The Weakly Puppy. We worked on that this morning so it would be a “wrap” before the holidays kick in as it gets published on Friday. Kaleb told me that he really feels he “doesn’t have time” anymore to continue doing the publication but he just can’t bring himself to stopping it because so many people enjoy getting it and he doesn’t want to let them down. He says he will NEVER stop writing it. It will soon be two years since he started it and it still makes me laugh out loud. Funny boy.
Well this afternoon we had a little cabin fever so we set out for the mall. Kaleb really wanted a book that Tobias told him was available in English at a store at the mall, so he was chomping at the bit to buy it with his birthday money. (I’m sure glad I didn’t get it for him already for a Christmas gift.) We came home, made tacos for dinner, heated up some glogg and started decorating the tree! (Kory went and “got” one last night – somewhere.) Our tradition back home always takes an entire day to get the tree as we drive up to the Mt. Baker National Forest and get our $10 permit and cut down a fresh one. But they don’t really allow that kind of thing here, so one just magically showed up at our house and I’m not asking any questions. (Trees cost about a hundred bucks and I don’t want to know the details around this one.) We shipped over some favorite tree decorations and we bought some here and we now have the finest looking tree in the neighborhood. Well, I guess that’s because it’s the ONLY tree in the neighborhood at this point – no one puts them up until tomorrow – but I couldn’t wait one more day. (I hope the Christmas police don’t come arrest me or something as the number of offenses I’ve committed against these precious Norwegian traditions are mounting.) We did buy the lights that look like candles, and I like them a lot. When Kory was a kid they lit real candles on the tree and danced around it. The cords attached to our lights prohibit any kind of dancing, so we just sat in front of it and drank more glogg. Then we popped popcorn and watched another Christmas movie (Home Alone 2) I downloaded from some European internet site that is probably illegal and will now go on my “naughty” list for the year. I’m anticipating a lump of coal anyway because I couldn’t think of anything to buy myself for Christmas.
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