Tying up Loose Ends

Kory and I were home alone all day as Kaleb was with friends, Odd was at work and Turid was at her art studio. I used the time to go through a bunch of paperwork to decide what needs to be in the U.S. and what needs to be left here. I also repacked a few things, weighed the bags to be sure we aren’t over weight and filled out insurance forms. It was a pretty boring day until I picked up Kaleb and we went over to cousin Axel’s house for dinner.

Axel and Kari had a little going away dinner for us with their entire family so that was the highlight of our day. I got to show them the photo books I’ve created and the ones I’m working on. The kids all ran around together and it was as noisy as it could be and just how family gatherings should be (including good food). Everyone wanted the recipe for the cake Kaleb made yesterday (we took the leftovers with us). He was pretty proud. It was a great evening and we all agreed that time has gone too fast this year.

Kory was in a lot of pain today and even with pain pills I hate to see him wincing so much as he tries to move around. I sure hope this flight on Monday doesn’t do him in. So many are praying, I just have to trust God’s judgment on this one and try not to stress out these last few days – especially since the latest photo book I finally finished last night of our road trip has mysteriously vanished in cyber space and now it seems all my work this past week needs to be redone. I take back the high recommendations I’ve given this software program! Ugh. I want to cry.

It’s late and I’m tired. I didn’t sleep well last night. I had a dream we were on vacation in South America and we got taken hostage by some guerillas. We were put in a place from which we could not escape – no kidding – I really dreamt that. I hope it’s not some kind of prophesy. I love Norway but now that I’ve wrapped up all the loose ends, I’m ready to go home and start untying a few there.

People keep asking us what we will do when we get home, and I have no answer for that, other than “normal life stuff.” We will homeschool Kaleb, go to church and get back in to our old routines. This Fall already feels overwhelming as we have a cousin coming from Oslo for a few weeks in September so I’ll need to show her around as Kory won’t be driving until at least October plus we have two vacancies at our apartment building in Seattle to deal with. I think I will soon be longing for Sunday’s off and the simpler life we’ve had in Norway. But I am looking forward to Costco, Trader Joe’s and Wal-Mart. I’ll just try not to go there on Sundays.

Details

I tried to get the internet and house phone hooked up today, but that was impossible since we don’t yet have our official Norwegian ID numbers. I will surely die if I have to wait two more weeks to have internet access in my home. (Turid calls me a “blog-a-holic” since I’m constantly looking for non-secure wi-fi connections in the neighborhood to get a signal and post my blog.) She tried to help me out today but she went down every rabbit trail on Telenor’s website to find out how to subscribe via the internet, and got nowhere. She then called the company and got into voice jail for which there was no return, so she had to call again, only to hear a recording that it was a twenty minute wait to be helped (at least there are some things here that are the same in America.) When you pay 50 cents per minute to be on any phone, you don’t sit on hold for too long, so she hung up and called the store at the mall where we got our cell phones. She knows the guy that works there and he told her – thank goodness – our efforts were in vain anyway until we get our Norske ID numbers. (At least we didn’t have to wait 20 minutes on hold to find that out.) I guess they don’t have such things as illegal aliens in this country because you just can’t do a thing here without their social security number equivalent. Turid also showed me how to pay bills on-line, the Norwegian way. It’s similar to America but with a lot more security steps to jump through as it’s their only option for moving money around.

I also went to the post office today to register our address as being active again. I have to fill out paperwork and send it in to some central location so they know we are here (and yes, they need to know our ID numbers for that, too). People also take their mailboxes with them when they move, so we had to buy a new one. Axel called the Aalesund Kommune to get our garbage service activated. Odd wrote down the current meter numbers on our electrical box and called the power company to register us with them. The meter boxes are inside the house so they never come out to read them, it’s all done digitally. Can’t wait to get that first bill. Even though I now have a dryer, I still hung up clothes today to save on electricity (but I do that at home, anyway – I just only do it in the summer. They do it indoors here year round.)

Kory spent most of the day on his “watchman” job here at The Sinking Houses. He went around and talked to all the neighbors, measured all the corners of the houses and “got familiar” with the place, as he calls it. He’s going to drive some rods down into the ground on each corner, then nail a ruler to the buildings so he can measure how much the ground moves. Currently it’s sinking at a rate of two inches per month and I guess the sewer lines have broken several times as they don’t take all the movement too well. (If that happens again I guess we can call the place The Stinking Houses.) Kory managed to round up some closets, light fixtures and window coverings from some of the other houses here (he has keys to all of them now). It will be sold as a package deal to some investor so we don’t feel bad using things from the other places and it saves us thousands of dollars in not having to buy them.

Kaleb spent the whole day playing with cutey girl, Sabina (see photo). It’s so nice he likes to be with kids his age - Hallelujah! She turns 10 next week. They watched Ben 10 on her TV, rode bikes, played with Alfred the dog next door, jumped on a neighbor’s trampoline and picked more blueberries for pancakes. The pancakes they have in this part of Norway are called “Svela” (probably not how you spell it but that’s how it sounds). But figure this– Norwegians eat French fries with a fork and knife, but they eat pancakes with their hands! They sprinkle sugar or jam or a thick kind of syrup on the pancake and roll it up and eat it like a burrito. But their pancakes aren’t like ours… Svela is special to just this area in Norway and the key ingredient is something called “Hjortetakksalt.” I bought it a few years ago and brought it home so I could make Svela and it’s a powder that smells exactly like ammonia (or pee, whichever you prefer) and the scary thing is, if you translate that name Hjortetakksalt, it means “thanks to the deer salt”… so ya gotta wonder what’s in there. (It makes the pancakes a little bit rubbery so they can be rolled up without breaking.) So Sabina had her first taste of American pancakes today and she looked at me like I was crazy when she discovered blueberries in them. She preferred the ones without. I guess she’s used to the pee.