Another Hyttatur (Cabin trip)

Sleep just isn’t going to happen much for me in the next few days, I can tell that.  I was up at six this morning working on my next article for the LaConner paper.  I really need it quiet when I write, and that was about the only time the cabin was quiet.  The boys even complained they couldn’t sleep because they heard snoring throughout the night.  The swore they felt the floorboards vibrating and it woke Andre up.  He was sure there was a car outside.  They weren’t exaggerating.  Kory’s snoring is legendary.  Thankfully, because of that, they all slept in until nearly ten this morning so I had lots of quiet time.

Judi and Stuart are suffering from jet lag something terrible.  They both got up in the middle of the night and just stared out the window for hours.  It doesn’t get dark now at all so it was easy to enjoy the beauty around us in the wee hours of the morning.  They were dragging all afternoon though and I wouldn’t let them take a nap or they’d be doomed for a week.  They were both rather rummy so it was good they didn’t have much to do today but watch a bunch of boys compete in some challenges.

We played the “Minute to Win-It” challenges right after breakfast.  The boys loved every bit of it and it went much faster than I anticipated because we were missing two boys.  They were all sad some of their friends weren’t there, but it couldn’t be helped. 

Norwegians have been well conditioned to be kind and tolerant and they always play games so everyone wins.  I kept mixing up their teams for that very reason, so the more skilled kids wouldn’t always have the advantage.  But Kaleb is still a bad loser and it came out a few times during the competitions.  Once when Kaleb pitched a hissy-fit, I asked Henrik why he was even friends with Kaleb and he said he think’s he’s okay to talk to and hang around with.  I asked him what other kids at school thought of him and he said some kids think he’s a little strange but some kids like him.  I’m thankful the Norwegians do teach tolerance, or Kaleb might not have any friends at all.  Judi was watching everything too and she’s had some experience with “unique” children in a past line of work.  She said Kaleb’s behavior is very typical of “high intellect” children.  Small comfort.

It was pretty cold today up in the mountains so our time outdoors was brief.  Most of the things were indoor activity anyway so it worked out well.  The boys had to get home by five so Kory left at four to drive them back to the ferry.  He gave them money for the fare and they got on by themselves.  Andre’s mom picked them up on the other side so we could save the ferry ride as Kory had to come back and get us.  We lingered however and had a BBQ salmon dinner at the cabin after it was all nice and quiet again.  Judi kept Kaleb entertained with one thing or another as he was like a caged animal without friends to talk to. 

The sun finally came back out as we were cleaning up and ready to leave.  We caught a ferry at nine.  The sun was hanging so low on the horizon and the lighting was so pretty, I decided to drive around a little to show them a few places before we went home.  We went by our old neighborhood so they could see “The Sinking Houses” where we used to live.  I also drove by Tobias’ house to show them how close he lived to us.  Bjorn saw us drive by and called me on my cell phone to ask why we didn’t stop in and visit.  Tobias is getting confirmed tomorrow so I knew they would be crazy busy but he wanted to show off his new man cave, so I turned around and headed back there.  They were all more than gracious to show us the table they set for dinner tomorrow and Bjorn’s new pride and joy “hagestue” out in the yard.  Too sweet.

I then drove by a few more view points for Stu and Judi to see the mountains and water and farm lands with the light of the setting sun on them and that woke them up out of their jet lagged grogginess more than anything.  But by the time we got home and unloaded everything, they were ready for bed.  As we all were.  It was fun while it lasted, though.

A Long Awaited Day

About three years ago we were invited for coffee up to Kory’s friend’s cabin. Ole-Petter showed Kaleb all the secret passageways and hiding spots and Kaleb has been dreaming ever since then, of having his friends over to see that place. Today was the day he’s been waiting for. He talked about this cabin every time we talked about Norway. He’s riding high right now, and probably won’t sleep much. Five of his friends all brought their sleeping bags and hopefully a toothbrush to spend about 30 hours up in the mountains with us, at a very quaint and lovely place. Life is good.




All morning I spent planning, packing, loading up the car and shopping for last minute things like fresh bread and frozen pizza (our freezer is so small it won’t hold a single one.) Kaleb set the menu and schedule of activities and at the last minute, invited one more friend. We had room for Kaleb and two of his friends in our van so we picked them up right after school and another parent drove the other three kids over around dinnertime.



We had nothing but blue skies and sunshine today so that was a good thing. I am now sitting out on a covered porch, surrounded by snow covered mountains, the lake’s edge at the bottom of our driveway. The ground is still wet from winter’s snowmelt and little white flowers are smeared like frosting in every little nook and cranny among the rocks and trees. Every since we got here, there was only about fifteen minutes I didn’t hear the background chatter of children, because they took a little trip down to the lake to throw rocks in the water. I sunned myself and enjoyed the quiet. I heard the birds and felt so warm and comfy, I fell asleep. Kory said he heard me snoring, which must have been pretty loud because he’s hard of hearing. It’s nice to have a little piece of quiet.



Kaleb has been in hyper mode all day. It’s not the norm for him to hang out with a gang of kids back home, as he just plays with one boy at a time in America, so I’m thankful he has that group dynamic experience here. Fortunately for Kaleb, Norwegians are trained to be very tolerant, and that works in his favor, otherwise I think sometimes he’s a little too irritating to be around, but the kids here just sluff it off.



I bought “Kubb,” an outdoor game that was invented by the Vikings and has been played non-stop since that time. It’s made of wood and it involves throwing sticks from one side to the other, trying to knock down the opponent’s square blocks. It was a surprise for Kaleb but he didn’t appreciate it because it interfered with the schedule he’d worked up. All the kids here love to play it and they immediately started a tournament, which took way more time than Kaleb wanted. It was good for him to not be in total control.



All the kids brought their Nintendos and Kaleb was pestering me all day to play them. I told him he could play it “later,” which ended up being around 11:30. It was still light outside, but the kids came inside anyway and went up to the cozy loft, covered with foam mattresses. They spread out their sleeping bags and settled in for the night, clutching their hand held games, which they were able to “link” together so they were all playing the same game. Kory and I are now heading to bed (it’s one in the morning) and they are still hooping and hollering as they play. We are all going to be pretty tired tomorrow, but no one is complaining.

A Late Start

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?