I catch the bus every morning at 7:45 so I set my cell phone alarm to go off at 6:45. I was so tired last night I forgot to bring it into our room so I just slept right through the alarm, which was going off in the living room. At 7:30, God sent a seagull, which stood right outside our open bedroom window and screamed as loud as it possibly could, until it woke me up. I had seven minutes to get out the door to catch the bus, and I made it with a few seconds to spare. I hate starting mornings off like that, but at least I got almost an extra hour of sleep!
There weren’t many of us in class today, which was a good thing because The Good Teacher Inga had to break the news to us that we are indeed combining with another class for these last few weeks of school. I could tell she wasn’t very happy about it, but she put on the happy face anyway and welcomed the new students. We have one chapter to go in our book with 14 chapters and the other class was just starting chapter 4 in the same book, so it will be quite the challenge for her to deal with students at two different levels. I think it would be good for us to go backwards for a while, so I’m okay with it. All we did this morning was read the newspaper. Norway actually produces a weekly newspaper written with very simple words and short articles just to help new immigrants and kids learn to read the paper. Today’s feature article was on the violence in schools around the world – specifically all the massacres done by students. The question is, will that ever happen in Norway. A little while ago some kid near Oslo made the threat to bring a gun to school and shoot people, so rather than kick him out of school or send him to a shrink, they fined him. He’s only 17 years old, but they strapped him with a debt equivalent to about a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars! They wanted to make the point that threats are not tolerated and they hoped it would get the message across to other kids not to do the same. That guy will have to work for probably ten years to pay off that debt. I guess if he doesn’t, he’ll go to jail, but that was one heck of a fine.
I left half way through the day to go meet with The Praying Women and have prayer time with them, which is always a highlight of my week. It’s like being in command central or something as there tends to be nothing but answered prayer coming out of that group. I had them pray for Kaleb today as his attitude has been such a challenge and this morning it went from bad to worse. Kory said he refused to go to school because he didn’t want to be around Morten. He was devastated that he couldn’t play with his Nintendo so he cancelled his plans to go over to his friend’s house after school. Kory said he was as sour as could be and nothing would console him. He was even late for school because he didn’t leave our house until it had already started. Kory told him to have a good day at school, to which Kaleb responded, “What makes you think I’m going?” But he did. He came home right on time and complained bitterly that he’s not learning anything and it’s very boring and he’s tired of being picked on. He’s counting down the days until it’s over and done with and he can go back to homeschooling. I felt badly for him that he didn’t go play with his friends, but he swears there is nothing to do with them unless they can use their Nintendos. Kory and I have given him a thousand examples of things to do, that we used to do as kids before the invention of hand held video games, but he doesn’t think any of them sound like much fun. Stakkars, Kaleb.
I packed my bags today when I got home from school. I’m flying to Oslo in the morning to go to a “Jesus Women” conference with cousin Kari this weekend. I was able to get round trip tickets for a little over a hundred dollars, and I’ll be sharing a hotel room with Kari and her sister so that will be just under a hundred dollars for two nights, so all in all, for about three hundred bucks I get a chick weekend away from home and in the big city of Oslo. There will be thousands of women at this conference so that’s exciting, too. I just love the whole multidenominational Jesus Women thing they have going on here in Norway. I’m looking at it like a graduation present to myself, even though I’m not graduating from anything, but I soon will be done with school, and that’s something worth celebrating.
Kory took the car in today for all the repairs needed to pass the European Union inspection. It cost just under a thousand dollars to fix all the little things that needed fixing. The guy he took it to said he’ll throw in two free slightly used front tires because he’s a friend of Kory’s from way back. Kory has to go in another day for the tires, but it’s good to know the car is now in tip-top shape for our big road trip. Woo hoo. I love road trips!
I packed a few more boxes today and sent a box of Kaleb’s school books home because it was cheaper than re-buying them when we get there. He’s elated that his algebra book is no longer in the house, and he’s hoping the box gets lost in the mail. Until my laptop comes back in the mail, he’s taking revenge on me limiting his electronics time and is now making me pay rent to use his computer in order to check my mail and write the blog. I’ve always wanted to be a paid writer, so this might be as close as I get – a writer who pays to write. Is that right?
There weren’t many of us in class today, which was a good thing because The Good Teacher Inga had to break the news to us that we are indeed combining with another class for these last few weeks of school. I could tell she wasn’t very happy about it, but she put on the happy face anyway and welcomed the new students. We have one chapter to go in our book with 14 chapters and the other class was just starting chapter 4 in the same book, so it will be quite the challenge for her to deal with students at two different levels. I think it would be good for us to go backwards for a while, so I’m okay with it. All we did this morning was read the newspaper. Norway actually produces a weekly newspaper written with very simple words and short articles just to help new immigrants and kids learn to read the paper. Today’s feature article was on the violence in schools around the world – specifically all the massacres done by students. The question is, will that ever happen in Norway. A little while ago some kid near Oslo made the threat to bring a gun to school and shoot people, so rather than kick him out of school or send him to a shrink, they fined him. He’s only 17 years old, but they strapped him with a debt equivalent to about a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars! They wanted to make the point that threats are not tolerated and they hoped it would get the message across to other kids not to do the same. That guy will have to work for probably ten years to pay off that debt. I guess if he doesn’t, he’ll go to jail, but that was one heck of a fine.
I left half way through the day to go meet with The Praying Women and have prayer time with them, which is always a highlight of my week. It’s like being in command central or something as there tends to be nothing but answered prayer coming out of that group. I had them pray for Kaleb today as his attitude has been such a challenge and this morning it went from bad to worse. Kory said he refused to go to school because he didn’t want to be around Morten. He was devastated that he couldn’t play with his Nintendo so he cancelled his plans to go over to his friend’s house after school. Kory said he was as sour as could be and nothing would console him. He was even late for school because he didn’t leave our house until it had already started. Kory told him to have a good day at school, to which Kaleb responded, “What makes you think I’m going?” But he did. He came home right on time and complained bitterly that he’s not learning anything and it’s very boring and he’s tired of being picked on. He’s counting down the days until it’s over and done with and he can go back to homeschooling. I felt badly for him that he didn’t go play with his friends, but he swears there is nothing to do with them unless they can use their Nintendos. Kory and I have given him a thousand examples of things to do, that we used to do as kids before the invention of hand held video games, but he doesn’t think any of them sound like much fun. Stakkars, Kaleb.
I packed my bags today when I got home from school. I’m flying to Oslo in the morning to go to a “Jesus Women” conference with cousin Kari this weekend. I was able to get round trip tickets for a little over a hundred dollars, and I’ll be sharing a hotel room with Kari and her sister so that will be just under a hundred dollars for two nights, so all in all, for about three hundred bucks I get a chick weekend away from home and in the big city of Oslo. There will be thousands of women at this conference so that’s exciting, too. I just love the whole multidenominational Jesus Women thing they have going on here in Norway. I’m looking at it like a graduation present to myself, even though I’m not graduating from anything, but I soon will be done with school, and that’s something worth celebrating.
Kory took the car in today for all the repairs needed to pass the European Union inspection. It cost just under a thousand dollars to fix all the little things that needed fixing. The guy he took it to said he’ll throw in two free slightly used front tires because he’s a friend of Kory’s from way back. Kory has to go in another day for the tires, but it’s good to know the car is now in tip-top shape for our big road trip. Woo hoo. I love road trips!
I packed a few more boxes today and sent a box of Kaleb’s school books home because it was cheaper than re-buying them when we get there. He’s elated that his algebra book is no longer in the house, and he’s hoping the box gets lost in the mail. Until my laptop comes back in the mail, he’s taking revenge on me limiting his electronics time and is now making me pay rent to use his computer in order to check my mail and write the blog. I’ve always wanted to be a paid writer, so this might be as close as I get – a writer who pays to write. Is that right?
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