Back Home Again

Kaleb flipped a coin this morning on whether he should go to school or not.  He said his stomach hurt a little, but mostly, his shoulders were sunburned and he didn’t want to be packing around his backpack full of books.  The coin toss decided he’d be going to school afterall, so I lightened his load and only gave him two books to work from today so the pressure wouldn’t be too great on his back.  He was appreciative of that, and somehow, his stomach started feeling better.

Markus told us a few days ago that when it rains, it means that God is peeing on us.  Fortunately, Kaleb made it to school before the peeing started.  Even then, it didn’t last long and I was able to hang out some laundry to dry.

Kory went to the store first thing today to get bread and a few other items.  I continued to unpack and put things away.  I went to the library to post my blog and load up some photos onto Facebook and was shocked I was there for nearly three hours.  What happened to the time?  I made sure I stood up often and stretched and thought of Emil.  I guess my back got in the shape it did from sitting far too long at the computer.  I’m going to try minimizing further damage.

While I was at the library, Kory ran into Josef Kloven, a guy from Seattle.  He’s been working with YWAM, a Christian organization here in town, but now is working as a metal worker and they have a job they are doing to some flashing on the building next to us.  Kory invited him up for lunch so they had a good chat and got caught up on a lot of things happening with mutual friends here and there.  I missed the whole thing, including lunch.

Tante Kari came up to welcome us back this afternoon and then sat and looked at some of the photos and watched the video of Markus singing out Hallelujah every few minutes.  He still cracks me up.  Kory took Tante Aslaug over to visit Tante Ruth.  Ruth looks like she’s on death’s door and I do think she’s hoping she’s there soon.  Kory took a photo of her and it was a sad sight.

Kaleb went home with his friend Henrik today after school.  He called to tell me where he was and to inform me that he got beat up by Morten today - punched right in the eye, while it was open.  “First time I saw stars,” he said.  Apparently Morten pushed him into a doorframe and Kaleb didn’t take too kindly to it since it hurt his sunburned back.  He grabbed Morten by the arm and asked him why he did that.  Not big on explanations, apparently, Morten just punched him in the face.  Kaleb cried and then Morten told the teacher Kaleb hit him first.  Such is life.  It was a repeat of last night at the airport when I just kept telling Kaleb to “let it go,” when someone does something irritating to him, but he escalates it every time to his own detriment.  I’m praying he learns soon to steer clear of trouble, rather than stir it up.

Kory and I managed to get in a 35 minute walk before I made dinner.  Kaleb came home just as we were sitting down to eat so we had a fast meal, then down to Tante Kari’s for piano practice.  I had to listen to Kaleb play today since he didn’t play all last week and I was sure he was going to be sloppy.  I was right.  So Kory visited with Kari outside on the balcony, while I cracked the whip with Kaleb.

I had a Bible study group meeting tonight and we were there over three hours!  We had such a good discussion on prayer, fasting, faith, forgiveness, salvation… it just kept going and going, then we prayed and talked some more.  I love how serious people are here about their relationship with God, if they have one.  It’s very encouraging to me and I’m so thankful to have so many opportunities to “gather together” with fellow believers.

I walked home from the meeting tonight because I wanted a bit more exercise and it was still light out at 11 o’clock.  I love the long days of summer.  It’s even better when God stops peeing.

Wishin' the Sunshine Were on My Shoulders

The sun just keeps on shining around here, but today I didn’t get to enjoy it like I wanted to.  We went to church this morning, but then had to get back home and clean the house and start making dinner.  Kaleb wanted his friend Toban to come over, along with his family.  He’s hoping they will come for a visit in America, and we don’t know his parents all that well.  So today was the day to get over that hump, as it were.

I made yummy food, but it took way too long, so I missed out on being out in the warm sunshine.  Kory and I didn’t go for a walk, either.  I tried not to be bummed out about it, figuring I was on a little “mission” for God, but the sun is not a regular visitor to this part of the world so it was tough. 

I had my standard Sunday food emergency and usual amount of stress.  I started making chocolate mousse before church so it could chill all day in the frig, but I was surprised to find I was short one egg (Kory has a way of using up just the thing I need).  Our frig is so small we can’t keep a lot of inventory and I knew yesterday I had enough eggs to make the mousse today, but Kory, in all his questionable wisdom, decided to boil one extra egg yesterday, “just in case.”  There it sat, in the frig, boiled, not doing me any good at all when I needed to be separating the yolk from the whites.  I wasn’t too happy, but on the way home from church we stopped and bought a half dozen eggs.  I was glad I didn’t have to buy a dozen because they were a dollar per egg. Ugh.

Besides cleaning house and making dinner, I had a few other things to attend to that had deadlines, so I had to sit at my computer, when I could have been out walking.  Our local paper back in LaConner asked me to suggest three columns I’ve written on Norway they could submit for a newspaper competition.  I had to look through my past work and get those to them today.  I also got a list of applicants for my scholarship at Clatsop Community College in Oregon, so I had to read through those and send in the name of the woman who gets her tuition paid for this year.  Then the woman organizing the Women’s Aglow meeting in a few weeks asked me to send her a little blurb on myself for their advertisements of the event.  And it all had to be done by TODAY.  So, here I sat, longing for some sunshine on my shoulders, but needing to take care of business.  At least next week I should be getting plenty of sunshine when we are in Turkey!

Kaleb spent the entire day with Daniel today and didn’t even go to church with us this morning.  Tina took them down to the beach for a little “grill” so I couldn’t very well ask him to come home and help clean the house, when he as the chance to be outside.  He was looking forward to having Toban over, but I was a little bummed about his behavior once they all got here.  Toban was very bored with Kaleb, as his little brother brought over his Pokemon cards and Kaleb just sat and played the cards with him, leavning Toban with nothing to do.  Obviously Toban has passed the Pokemon card stage, and Kaleb hasn’t.  Hmm. 

It was so cute when Toban’s family showed up.  His little five year old sister, Sofia, was all decked out in something I’d consider an Easter dress, and I shook her hand and told her my name, then asked what hers was, speaking Norwegian, of course.  She hesitated, hesitated, hesitated… then her mom nudged her and told her to tell me her name.  She turned to her mom and said (in Norwegian), “I don’t know how to say it in English.”  Her mom laughed and said, “Sofia.” 

We had a nice chat with the parents and they know a lot of people we know so it was good to connect the dots.  I inquired if there is a chance Kaleb and Toban could be related, which is a dream of Kaleb’s.  Both the parents come from the same valley across the fjord where Kory’s grandfather comes from, so there’s a good chance of it.  (There’s also a good chance they are related to each other.)  It’s hard NOT to be related to people around here.

(I didn’t take a single photo today, so I’m just popping in a few from the last walk we took at sunset.   The one above is of the sky bridge that connects the two malls we are attached to.  The one above that is the sidewalk that separates us from the mall.  The other two were just from the path we walked.) 

It's Snowing!

It’s been a mix of snow and rain all day but now, at 10pm, we have full on snow that’s sticking to the ground. I imagine we’ll wake to quite the winter wonderland scene around here. The weather in Aalesund is so exciting, you never know what you’re going to get. What amazes me most is we haven’t had to turn on the heat all day, even though it’s been bitter cold outside. This place is well insulated, as we haven’t even needed to put on a sweater to be comfortable inside.




We cleaned up the place a bit this morning before we headed off to Agape Church, which was a good thing. We were given a warm welcome back at church, but two teenagers there were being Confirmed right after the service, so they didn’t have the usual coffee and cake hour. We were hoping to visit a little with some of our friends so we invited them over to our place instead (because it was fairly presentable). It was our first time officially entertaining in our new home, so it was pretty exciting. I pulled off a genuine Norsk “coffee” event almost without a hitch.



I made waffles (a common food eaten in Norway when someone comes a calling). Tobias (our old neighbor kid) and his parents came by to see our place before our friends from church came by.  They will be visiting us this summer in Mount Vernon so we had to talk a little about the plans we had made already and what they want to do when they come for a visit.



Before Tobias arrived, Tante Kari came up to say hello and ask why we didn’t go to Philadelphia Church today (we split our time between the two churches when we lived here). She was looking for us and missed us sitting with her. She was more than impressed with how cozy the house was (I even had candles burning on the coffee table and all my 17th of May decorations out.) If ever I need to feel good about myself, I can just spend a little time with Tante Kari. She is one of the most uplifting, positive people I’ve ever been around. When we told her about the idea I had to partition off Kaleb’s room with a stair step down partial wall, she was sure I missed my calling as an architect or interior decorator. I hope she drops by daily – she just lives downstairs.



When our friend’s from church came for coffee (see photo), they brought their two boys with them, so they sat in the kitchen with Kaleb and Tobias playing a card nearly the entire time we had coffee and ate waffles with our fingers, and talked in the living room. It felt so real, so settled, so Norsk. I loved every minute of it, until that is, Kaleb decided he was bored, and frustrated that he didn’t have a playdate today with his ex-school chums, and became ever so disrespectful and nasty. I’m sure it was his lack of sleep the last two nights more than anything, but he was downright embarrassing in front of company – acting up in such a way. He will now suffer the consequences and have to stay home tomorrow from playing with his pals. I almost dread having him home all day when he’s in such a sour mood, but I’m hoping he wakes up normal. I know he was disappointed in many things today, including not being able to go to the movies. We live right next to an indoor swimming pool and movie theatre (under the same roof), so all the boys left to go see if any good movies were playing. Both the swimming hall and movie theatre were closed. The fact everything but church is closed on Sunday really takes some getting used to. So does Kaleb’s mood when things don’t work out as he had hoped.

No Mother's Day Here

Last November, when it was Mother’s Day in Norway, I ignored it. It was too close to Thanksgiving and didn’t feel right to celebrate ME at such an odd time of year. I was holding out for today. But, as I’ve come to discover since living here – being the only one trying to uphold an American tradition in a foreign land, just doesn’t work. A normal Mother’s Day for me back home would involve breakfast in bed, a homemade bird house by my sweet boy, and being waited on hand and foot all day. Not so today. For one thing, Kaleb spent last night with a friend, so there wasn’t even anyone to be a mother to this morning. No breakfast in bed, no coffee, no greeting… a day lost and forgotten on this mother. Oh well, there’s always next year.

Kory and I went to Agape Church this morning. It was a packed house. It seems a small Pentecostal church meeting in downtown Aalesund on Saturday nights, pulled the plug. I’m not sure what all was going on there, but the pastor of that church came and asked the pastor of Agape Church if he could send his “flock” to Agape. They all showed up this morning – including the former pastor. It’s all a little weird, but they did it – they combined the two churches with the hopes that our pastor will branch out one day to do Saturday night services back in the middle of town. Interesting dynamic there and I’m sure there’s more to that story, but I thought it was odd that a church would just shut down all of a sudden. In the US they tend to die a slow death….

We sat by Sabina (age 10) and her mom after church at the café and had coffee and talked. Sabina told Kory how much better his Norwegian is since he’s moved here. Considering I couldn’t speak it at all when we came, I went looking for a compliment in all the wrong places. I asked Sabina if she thought I had improved a lot too in these last several months and she said, “Yes, but you say all your words wrong.” So much for that.

We expected to pick Kaleb up from his sleepover before church this morning, but he called just as we were leaving to ask if he could stay on and play for the day with his friend Andre. Our priority now with him is to get him well connected to some Norwegian kids, so we had to say yes. He couldn’t have been more pleased. We told him we’d come get him before dinner, as we had invited Kory’s uncle and his wife, and his aunt over for dinner (they are Kory’s mom’s half brother and sister). But Uncle Per called this morning to say they couldn’t make it tonight so I called Andre’s parents and invited them and their kids to come eat the food I had already begun to prepare. As it turns out, I saved the day at their house because it was Håvard’s (Andre’s dad’s) turn to make dinner tonight for his family, and he forgot, and they had nothing planned and all the stores are closed on Sundays. They were thrilled to be invited and they even liked the food. Their oldest son didn’t come because he has a big exam tomorrow he needed to study for. I started complaining how difficult it is to learn Norwegian with the two official languages here and all the dialects. Janne (Andre’s mom) agreed with me. All children here must learn both languages and her oldest son was home studying for his grammar test in Nynorsk (the language Kory speaks.) Janne said her son was so frustrated with the language he shouted out, “It’s surely NOT from God!” So it comforted me to know even the locals have a hard time with all the grammar.

It was nice to have some of Kaleb’s friends here for a change. Tobias came over and all the boys were outside playing hide and seek all evening. Janne commented again just how polite Kaleb is and that he always says please and thank-you. Last night she asked if he might need to use the bathroom before he went to bed and he said, “Yes, thank you.” She thought that was pretty funny. She said she’s never heard a kid laugh so hard as Kaleb laughs when he watches a movie. He does enjoy slapstick and for as little as he sees any TV or movies, I guess he has a lot of pent up laughter just waiting to come out. They enjoyed having him around so that was good, but it was sad for me to only see him a few minutes all day today. When I was tucking him in to bed tonight he finally remembered what day it was and then he wished me a Happy Mother’s Day and asked if I liked my present – a day off from being a mother. Ha ha.

The First of May - International Worker's Day

It’s a National holiday all over Europe and most of the industrialized world today – a day for celebrating how far worker’s rights have come, but also a day to protest if some feel they haven’t come far enough. Most people here in Norway have nothing to complain about, so a marching band here or there might go down a street blasting out tunes, but otherwise, people are up in the mountains or at their cabins just enjoying the day off. We took to the hills today as the weather continues to be outstanding for this time of year. Kaleb perfected his flying skills (see photo) once we were on top. It was a rough landing, but he’ll do anything for a goofy photo. The hike up was slow so as not to overtax Kory’s heart. I appreciated having that as an excuse as the going is pretty slow for me these days too – my knees sometimes feel like they are going to give out on me so I go slow and steady – so afraid I’ll fall. Tante Kari’s fall a few weeks ago broke her hip and now we found out yesterday the pins they put in her to repair the break didn’t hold so she has to have hip replacement surgery next week. I’m extra cautious because of stuff like that because I know I’m not getting any younger and I’m beyond trying to impress anyone.

The spring wildflowers were out in force today and made the two hour hike up ever so pleasant. We also encountered plenty of dogs, which kept Kaleb happy. The hike up was without incident, but the hike down provided one of the funniest moments I’ve experienced in a long time. If anyone would have seen it, it would have been embarrassing, however. It was so hot today I drank a little too much water while we were sitting on top of the mountain. On the way down, nature called. I went off on a side trail and then into some bushes to relieve myself. I had forgotten to bring my walking sticks that my friend Paula gave me, so Kory found a stick I used to steady myself when stepping down from uneven surfaces. I used the stick to beat around in the bushes and make sure no poisonous snakes were lurking nearby, as they often end up, literally, biting people in the butt when they using nature in such a way that exposes their behind. I was confident it was a safe location to pee and when I was done, I used the stick to help me stand up, but it broke in half and I lost my balance and fell head over heels backwards into the bushes and down a little hill. I didn’t go far but I got a few scratches on my butt and plenty of little branches in my hair and places I’d rather not say. I was so worried I’d encounter a snake as I made my way back up the hill and while looking for my camera (it went flying out of my shirt pocket as I rolled backwards). I couldn’t help but giggle all the way back to where Kory and Kaleb were waiting for me and when I told them what happened, Kaleb nearly collapsed in laughter. He wanted all the details, as I’m sure he will repeat them time and time again. He insisted on seeing my scratches when we got home, and then he howled all the more. I guess I’ll be the butt of that joke for years to come. Too funny.

We didn’t spend as much time up on the mountain as we would have liked to because we were invited to Benjamin's birthday party. Benjamin and Kaleb have played together several times over the years as he’s a foster grandson to Kory’s cousin Axel. We were happy to be invited to Kenneth and Miriam’s (Axel and Kari’s daughter's) house for a wonderful outdoor BBQ and time with the whole family. And after the party was over and everyone went home but us and Axel and Kari and Tante Aslaug, we all watched a movie together. But it wasn’t just sitting around watching a movie in someone’s living room kind of thing – no – this was something special. Kenneth built an incredible movie theatre in the basement of their house that is one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. One wall is just the screen and it’s set up to show movies made with Blue-ray high definition quality so the picture is crisper than anything I’ve ever seen before anywhere. And behind the screen wall is a room with a huge movie library, so we got to go in and pick the film of our choice. The surround sound vibrated the furniture when the volume increased, but the whole room is sound proofed so none of the sound escaped and woke their baby sleeping upstairs. They bought special comfy couches to sit on that are so deep our legs couldn’t touch the floor - so we got to recline back with our feet up and watch the show (we picked “Ratatouille”). Kenneth even stair-stepped the floor so those in the back row sat up higher than those in front so every seat was a good seat. What an experience that was. Now Kory and Kaleb are conniving and planning on how they can do the same in our basement. We could never do something as extensive as Kenneth did, but I really think the boys will keep harping on me about it - maybe hoping I’ll just settle for a flat screen TV with some kind of cable hookup when we get home. I’m holding out as long as I can.

WE GOT APPROVED!

WE FINALLY GOT APPROVAL TO LIVE IN NORWAY! We actually got notified by the consulate on Thursday the 8th, but it’s been a whirlwind of activity around here since then so I’m late in recording the monumental news! It’s a bit of shock and awe at this point. Kaleb is devastated and cries every time it’s mentioned. Kory and I are relieved mostly, just that we know what the future holds for now, but also trying not to freak out about the details.

The good news is that they issued us work permits! This takes a huge amount of pressure off trying to live on the deflated dollar. And I called social security and Kory can make up to $13,560 this year and not lose a dollar of his benefits and next year he can earn over $35,000 and then after that – it’s unlimited. So that’s cool. I can earn up to $13,560 each year… so if we both get part time jobs over there we should be just fine. Then we have to find a car for around 5 grand (nearly impossible, but with God, all things are possible)… and an apartment for around a thousand a month – another seemingly impossible task since there are so few available… so I’m full of anticipation as to how God is going to provide for every fork and knife we will need as we aren’t bringing a thing but clothes and a few household items. And I know it will be a good story when we get through this next chapter.