Shopping Day

We had planned to take our guests to the local folk museum this morning, but they slept right through that opportunity.  They both took sleeping pills last night because they’ve had a hard time getting a good night’s sleep with the jet lag and all, and I hated to wake them.  It didn’t help that we were up until midnight last night, so I knew they needed to sleep in.  I finally woke them at eleven this morning, since Turid invited us to lunch at her studio at noon.  They slept right through breakfast, too.  Oh well!

Turid is one kind-hearted woman and she put on a nice spread of salads and luncheon stuff in the heart of her art studio in Aalesund.  It was a real treat.  Afterwards, we drove into the city to try and hit all five thrift stores.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  We barely made it through two of them.  There’s just too much to look through and too many decisions to make.  Poor Stuart, he’d start looking at something and Judi would holler at him to come look at what she was looking at.  There was just too many cool things to sort through and I’m sure if suitcase space wasn’t an object, they would have cleaned out the stores. 

I should have taken Judi and Stu to some real stores before we hit the thrift stores, though, just so they could get the full sticker shock into their system, as they were hemming and hawing about the prices of things in the thrift store!  Wait til they get a look at what new things cost in Norway.  We did find a souvenir shop that kept them occupied for more than an hour as many things were on sale and they found several treasures to take back home to their families. 

Once we started walking around town a bit, we got the jaw dropping expressions from not just Stuart today, but also Judi.  We couldn’t go too far without having to stop for photos – something I can totally appreciate.  Our town is pretty fine and I’ll never be bored by its beauty.

The hours just slipped by this afternoon and they aren’t used to everything closing so early, so by five o’clock we had to drive back home as there wasn’t a reason in the world to stay in the city.  I made a quick dinner and after we ate, Kaleb took them on a tour of the mall next door.  They both felt like just vegging out at our place after being on their feet all day, but once we looked at the calendar and realized how fast the time is going, they decided to seize the opportunity while they could.  Kory and I used the time to start packing up for the 12 day trip we are taking on Friday, as the next few days are looking fairly jammed with activities.

Kaleb turned 12 1/2 today and spent his afternoon with Henrik again and came home in time for dinner.  He’s looking forward to us being gone for 12 days and he’ll be able to have a record breaking 12 night sleepover with friends.  He already has this weekend lined up to be with Toban, but the bulk of the time he’ll be with his friend Andre, who is coming to stay with us this summer in America. 

Tante Aslaug dropped by for a little visit tonight, too.  She hadn’t seen us since we’ve been back from Israel.  Kaleb, Stu and Judi came back while she was still at our place so she got to meet them.  Then afterwards we took Stu and Judi down to meet Tante Kari.  She’s been coming by our place the last few days, not finding us at home and wondering what we were up to.  She wanted to greet our American guests, also, so we spent a bit of time with her tonight, trying to translate the conversation between her and the Americans.  It’s been fun for Stuart to meet everyone, as previously they just seemed like characters in a novel to him.  He’s read all about them since I started the blog, but now he can see they are real people.

It rained off and on all day today and not once could we even see the tops of the mountains.  It was a great day to be shopping, but I sure hope the weather clears up by tomorrow.  We’re going on a road trip to visit Stuart’s half-third-cousin-once removed who lives on a farm where their great-great grandfather lived.  Strangely enough, those two guys look like they could be twins.  Stu’s cousin called and they have planned a huge day tomorrow with other relatives coming over, a trip out the cemetery and possibly up to their cabin.  We thought we’d just be spending the morning with this one guy, Kaare, but I think he’s planned the whole day for them to be together, so I’m sure it’s gonna be good.

Kory has been working on drawing faces as he knows he can draw buildings pretty well, but the human face is still a challenge.  He’s getting better.  Judi doesn’t like her photo taken and won’t let me post pictures of her on my blog, so I took a photo of the picture Kory drew of her this morning.  Ha ha!

Happy Half Birthday, Kaleb!

I’m in love with my dishwasher. Not just because it washes all the dishes up AFTER a dinner party, but because it gives me a place to put the dirty dishes BEFORE the company arrives. I had such a tough time keeping the kitchen looking clean before I had a dishwasher. All the dirty dishes just gathered by the side or in the sink, but now, I can have a sink full of dirty dishes, and just stuff them away in my secret hiding place and the kitchen looks sparkling clean. Oh, what a lovely invention that dishwasher was.




We had Cousin Axel and his wife, Kari over for dinner tonight, along with the new pastors (husband and wife) of the Philadelphia Church. We also invited Tante Aslaug (Axel’s mom) at the last minute when I realized I made way too much food. None of it was leftover, however, as it all tasted so good everyone had seconds. Whew. I always get a little nervous when I cook American food, not knowing if the Norwegian palate can handle anything other than salt as a seasoning.



We love to have company, and we feel so blessed to have such a great place in which to host the events. Fitting eight around the table in our little kitchen here is way more comfortable than squeezing eight around our dining room table back home. And fitting eight around our coffee table for dessert here is actually possible. At home, it is not. Hmmmm.



I made salmon, pasta, cauliflower and a salad for dinner. I steamed the cauliflower and put a cheesy curry sauce over the top. Boy did I get compliments on that one. Cauliflower is a standard food here in Norway, but it’s always just steamed, served with no sauce or other flavorings. I was a bit worried that I dressed it up a bit too much, but everyone loved it. It was in the discussion of all the foods that are steamed here in Norway, that I found out there is a new appliance now available for purchase – a steamer oven. Just put the food in, and the oven somehow steams it right in the serving dish, and out it comes, ready for the table. It’s the latest thing and all the new kitchens being built now have one. Go figure. I’m not sure that would be a top seller in America, but the women tonight were pretty excited about it.



I woke up with a huge to-do list today and only accomplished half of it before I had to start getting dinner ready. Kory accomplished much on his to-do list but was a little disappointed he didn’t do more. He recaulked the kitchen counter and bathroom shower door and put new grout in some missing places in the bathroom floor. He also finished putting up all the trim pieces on the new wall and bought all the material to make me a little towel rack for some cool retro towels I got from Tante Ruth. He still has several items he feels rushed to get done, but such is life. One step at a time.



We are still unsure what we will do with our condo when we leave. We found out the hospital would be happy to use our apartment for visiting doctors, but they want us to have individual agreements with each one, as they don’t want to be responsible for its use. That’s not exactly what we want, so we will keep putting the word out there until something fits. The Good Teacher Inga told me her friend is living in England for a year and she just up and left her house, all the furniture as is, and got an agreement with an air ambulance company to rent it out for about $2,500 a month and they will only use it every now and then. That kind of thing would be EXACTLY what we are looking for, so we just trust God to drop something like that in our laps. But the clock is ticking. I’m not stressing about it though because based on past experience, I know that God is rarely early, but He’s never late.



(The photo today is one I took holding my arm in front of the windshield while Kory was driving last Saturday. I couldn’t even see what I was aiming at, but I knew what was in front of us. I thought it was a better picture than another one of us sitting around the dining room table with our company.  It's hard to take a bad photo in Norway.)

Happy Half-Birthday Kaleb!

This weekend would have been the big half birthday party for Kaleb if we were home, but he didn’t say a word about missing it. He was too busy all weekend having play dates, going to other parties and having a sleepover with Toben. After church today Kory picked him up and took Kaleb, Toben, Henrik and Andre (see photo) all to Barnas Lekeland (it’s like Jungle Playland in Mt. Vernon – just a big recreation thing for kids). We bought a punch card for 12 visits when we first came here and we had some punches left that need to be used before we leave town. We’ve been waiting to go on a rainy day, but the few days we’ve had rain lately, the other boys weren’t free, so today was the day - a sunny Sunday. It was good though because the boys had the run of the place as hardly anyone else was there. Kaleb felt like it was his own private 10.5 birthday party as we ordered pizza afterwards and the boys came back to our house for ice cream and played a bit more. They should all sleep good tonight as they were cherry cheeked boys from all the running around they did in that place the entire afternoon.

Kaleb was falling asleep at dinner, he was so tired. He said he was up until 4am so he only slept about five hours last night. I love that he has friends, and I especially love it when they do things OTHER than play video games. I asked Kaleb what he was doing until four in the morning and he said he was playing his Nintendo. Everyone else was asleep, but he was awake playing it. He knows he has a limit of one hour a day, but he completely blew that off when he was away from home. I asked him what his consequence should be for disobeying the time limit and he said, “Nothing. You’ve always told me I wouldn’t get in trouble if you asked me something and I told you the truth.” So then I had to remind him of the old Catholic system of buying indulgences – that they would intentionally sin knowing they would be “forgiven” through paying money for their misdeeds. I asked him if he thought what he did was right, and he wouldn’t answer me. I guess we’ll be talking more about that tomorrow, but I did tell him he lost some of the trust I have in him. Why is parenting such a challenge? Can’t we just have compliant children who do what they are supposed to do? I shouldn’t be surprised though, as I’m sure God often thinks the same thing about me. My friend Kata says that we get the children we deserve and I’m sure Kaleb is much more like me than Kory.

I flew back from Oslo today with some of the women from Filadelfia Church. It was interesting to hear their impressions on the conference. Everyone got something different out of it, and everyone had different things they didn’t like so much. There was such a variety of opinions that it gave me an opportunity to get to know some of the women through the long conversations we had on the topic. I had a fairly uneventful trip home, which was good, and I was glad to have an empty house to come home to so I could take a little nap before riding my bike over to see Kory and Kaleb at the play land. Kory, I think, enjoyed having some quiet time last night and this morning also as our house is only about 700 square feet so there isn’t much space to call one’s own. I’m sure our house back home will feel like a mansion after living here for a year. One thing I won’t miss about Norway is the beds. There is no such thing as a double bed or queen sized bed. There may be a king sized bed, but it’s just two single beds next to each other with a big crack down the middle. Norwegians apparently don’t do a lot of cuddling because all their bedding is just set up for single beds. They use those duvet covers so each bed has a fitted bottom sheet and a big down filled comforter inside the duvet cover. It’s pretty easy to make the bed when there aren’t covers to straighten out and tuck in – all they do is shake out the comforter on top and fold it in half lengthwise and the bed is made. But it’s weird when we go to a hotel and there are two narrow comforters on the bed. It was OK in the case of me sharing the hotel room with cousin Kari as we both had our own covers, but it’s weird to be married and not be able to snuggle up at night. I knew this ahead of time and shipped over American style bedding to use at home, but when we go to hotels or stay the night with other Norwegians, that is just how it is. Fiercely independent folks, even when they sleep. But the one thing I do love here are the showers. All the shower heads in Norway that I’ve seen have so many options! I can select the exact temperature of water, the pressure of the water and how high I want the showerhead. It feels so decadent to start the day off with so many choices. That, I will miss.

I’m now beginning to see people here that look like people back home, so maybe it’s a sign I’m getting homesick. I don’t feel homesick, but I have to do so many double takes before I make a fool of myself and go over and start talking to someone I THINK is someone I know. It’s too funny, as it’s happened many times. I’ve almost shouted out people’s names and then I remember I’m in Norway and that can’t possibly be who I think it is. Maybe it’s just my age or I need new glasses or something. I guess maybe it’s OK to be getting old as long as I can start the day off with a nice hot shower, deal with an obedient child all the day long and then snuggle with my honey at bedtime. Maybe.