Work, Work, Work, Crab, Crab, Crab

Today wasn’t much fun at all. Everyone was crabby for one reason or another, even though the sun was shining and the day couldn’t have been more beautiful.


We went to visit Tante Ruth first thing this morning and she was all worked up over a few things and cried and cried on Kory’s shoulder. I felt horrible for her. The sisters are all spatting over little things and now the one that’s been helping her pay her bills, won’t do it anymore. Ruth is helpless and doesn’t know what she will do since she can’t see. Kory prayed for her but I told him he should offer to help. He wouldn’t do that because we are leaving soon. Poor Ruth. I’m not sure what the solution to that problem will be.



We used the rest of the day to shop for things we still need for the condo, like a bunk bed for Kaleb, a hallway mirror, and a kitchen sink faucet. We finally had to special order a bed for Kaleb that is ten centimeters smaller than the standard size, but it was our only option because his room is so small. Fortunately for us, it was on sale, as was one of the mattresses, but I have a sinking feeling the double sized bottom mattress is going to bite us in the butt. In a country where just a shower head can cost a thousand dollars, I never know just how much money can be spent on a single item until I get to the store. I thought two hundred bucks was too much for a kitchen faucet though, so I might have to live with the one we have. Shopping around here is so depressing, unless it’s at the second-hand store, but there are just certain things that can’t be found there, unfortunately.



The condo is getting closer to being done and the way we want it, but I think we’ll be working right up until the time we leave, doing things to it. I would so like to go climb a mountain or just get out and go for a walk on a day like today, but the to-do list took precedence. It took Kory several hours to install window locks on our bedroom windows this evening. He wasn’t happy about that. While he was grumbling, I was unpacked more boxes that I had previously set aside. At least I had a place to put things, so I’m not as crabby as Kory.



When Kaleb got home from school today he insisted on playing with his friends before finishing up his homework or practicing his piano. I wouldn’t budge on that one, which caused him to flip a lid. He pitched one of his little fits that he does sometimes when he doesn’t get his way. I held firm. He calmed down. He did well on his piano and science test and off he went on the bus up to his friend’s neighborhood. I don’t know why he just doesn’t get that he isn’t going to win when it comes to certain show-downs.



After dinner tonight we took the ferry across the fjord to meet up with Kory’s childhood friend, Ole-Petter. (Today’s photo is of the fjord we crossed. The foreground is all wild blueberry bushes.) Ole-Petter is loaning us his cabin this weekend so Kaleb can have his friend’s sleepover. He wanted to be sure we remembered how to get there and to go over a few things with us at the cabin. Kaleb is really looking forward to this because the cabin has many secret hiding places and passage ways, which make it fun to play Hide and Seek. Kory nearly wiped the sleepover off the calendar today because of the way Kaleb was behaving earlier, so I hope nothing more happens between now and then.



Ole-Petter told us we can buy a pre-loaded ferry card that gives a discount on the passenger rates and takes half off the fee for a car. I thought it sounded like a good idea, so we bought one of those cards tonight as we often have to use the ferries around here, being that Aalesund is on a peninsula and a ferry is required to go practically anywhere. I was a bit shocked, though, that the card cost nearly five hundred dollars. Fortunately it doesn’t expire, but I had to swallow hard on that one. One trip to Bergen in the car, however, will cost at least five hundred dollars in ferry fees there and back, so now it will be about half that. There’s something “good” to think about so I won’t start to feel crabby, too.