Tough Decisions

Kaleb had a big problem to face today. Three of his best friends each asked him if he could have a sleepover this weekend, and there are only two available nights in which to do it. He pondered all day how to solve that problem. I suggested he take them in the order they asked, but his absolute best friend, Toban, asked last, and that’s where he wanted to go first. Next weekend is a four day weekend because of the 17th of May (Independence Day), so I wasn’t sure if people were going out of town or not. I e-mailed the mom of Andre and asked if they were available next weekend instead, and they were, so that got him off the hook with Andre, so then it was down to just Haavard and Toban. Whew.



Kaleb flew through his school work and did very well in all of it (he played piano at Tante Kari’s, and she was more than impressed). He worked hard to get it all done so he could catch the one o’clock bus over to his friend’s neighborhood. I told him I’d drive his overnight things to him later. He called about four o’clock and told me his fourth best friend, Henrik, also wanted him to have a sleepover but Henrik’s mom solved his problem by inviting Andre and Toban as well, so he is having one big reunion sleepover tonight with three of his friends and tomorrow he’ll be one-on-one with Haavard. He’s on cloud nine. When I took his PJs, toothbrush and clean undies over to him, all the boys were outside playing on a neighborhood swingset and Kaleb’s face was just glowing. I couldn’t have been more pleased to see how happy he is. It makes me sad for all the time he spends with just us, and nothing to do.


We had plenty to do today so Kory and I just kept plodding along. It was another beautiful, sunny day, but with both front and back doors open, the condo kept nice and cool, while we scurried to and fro. Kory got the last of the boxes out of storage. Tante Kari suggested using a grocery cart to assist in moving. I guess everyone that lives here does it, since the grocery store is basically attached to this building. They don’t have homeless people pushing grocery carts up and down the sidewalks in Norway, so no one really appreciated how silly Kory looked doing it, but it did help preserve his back, as the last of the boxes had books in them. He also spent a great deal of time assembling shelving and storage units we bought for our other house when we first moved here in 2008. I’m completely impressed and amazed that everything we bought new back then, fits exactly to the centimeter in the places we wanted to put them now. In the kitchen there was a space between the end of the cabinets and the wall, and two shelving units fit there, snug as a bug. In our bedroom closet, there was one space that fit perfectly a set of wire drawers, floor to ceiling, without impeding any other things. Even Tante Kari was impressed. She said it was as if God knew way back then that we would be using those things here. I agree it was pretty close to miraculous. It’s so great to have a place to put things!


I was able to get through all the boxes (except things for Kaleb’s room, since he has no space to put stuff since it’s currently filled up with all of Tante Ruth’s boxes.) Our bedroom is finally in order, the kitchen is done and presentable. The bathroom is about half way there and the hallway (which contains my office) just needs a bit more tidying up. We couldn’t hang all the things on the wall just yet because the two walls we share with neighboring condo owners are made of concrete and Kory has to borrow a jack hammer from Rune in order to hang photos and wall mounted light fixtures. We found out from Tante Aslaug that the two wall sconces we got in the division of property, belonged to Kory’s great-grandparents and are very old (from the first days electricity came to Norway.) Who knew.


I returned to my favorite second-hand store today looking for more light fixtures. They all greeted me like an old friend when I walked in. I’m sure I’m their best customer as of late. I found the most comfortable, beautiful, seemingly brand new overstuffed chair there for $35. It has the same color of slate/gray blue that our couches have in them and I nearly peed my pants I was so excited. I thought we needed just one more chair and this one certainly fits the bill. Kory has basically taken possession of the Stressless recliner I bought, so I wanted a “comfy chair” as well. (See photo of me writing this blog, sitting in said chair in front of our new sheer, navy blue curtains.)


Tonight Kory and I were so tired we didn’t want to cook so we thought we’d splurge and go out to dinner (nothing fancy, just a cafeteria style café in the mall.) It was a little after seven o’clock when we walked over there, and they were closed – on a Friday night! It is so hard to get used to the opening hours of places in Norway, when in the US we are used to so many things being open 24 hours. The banks here are open only from ten until three. Restaurants will close between five and seven. Most of the mall shuts down at six, but some grocery stores stay open until eight. We walked over to the grocery store (the mall our condo is attached to has absolutely everything in it – banks, grocery and hardware stores, bakeries, travel agencies, gardening and electric stores, you name it.) We bought some ready made food to take home and put on the BBQ. They sell shish-kebabs in the frozen food section, and also tin foil packages of mixed vegetables, salmon and the seasoning, so all that’s needed is to set them on the grill. It was the fastest food we could find. About twenty minutes later we were sitting down to a yummy BBQ dinner out on the deck. Kory had to buy a beer to go along with it, and he shouted HALLELUJAH more than once while drinking it. It was another great day in paradise.