Necessities

When I saw the weather report a few days ago I had big plans for today.  It was supposed to be warm and sunny and we were supposed to be up on a mountain or down at the beach… but then the day came and the rain showed up.  It drenched my spirits for having a fun family day on one of the few days we are here in Norway with nothing else on the calendar.  Bummer.

We used the time this morning to do several necessary things however, like clean Kaleb’s room.  Poor guy, he has very little space so even just one or two things lying around makes it look a mess.  But the real problem was we hadn’t yet identified a place for everything, so everything COULD be in its place, so that happened this morning.  He has his t-shirt drawer and long sleeved shirt drawer and pants drawer, and hangers in his closet for his shirts and hoodies.  He has a bin for all his Pokemon stuff and a place to put his books and magazines.  It’s all so nice now I wonder how long it will stay that way.  I haven’t yet reminded him we have a few boxes of his stuff still in the basement, however, as there is no place in his room for it, and I’m hoping I can get rid of it before he remembers. 

Kaleb even crawled under his bed and washed the floor with a wet rag, since the dust was getting pretty thick in there.  Somehow, it makes our whole place feel cleaner.  We hung up a few wall decorations and made it look a little more like home.  I love it.

Kaleb was anxious to get over to his friend Andre’s house today so Kory drove him over there and then Kory and I went to the hospital to pray for Daniel’s dad.  I guess that’s not real common here - for people to show up and pray for the sick - so they were surprised by us doing that.  But God showed up too, so that was the most important thing.  Poor Are, he’s in terrible pain and they won’t give him much pain medication until they know the full extent of his injuries.  They know he broke his collarbone in one place and shattered his shoulder blade in several places, but that’s not enough for them to know he’s in so much pain he’s nauseous and needs some relief.  So we prayed.  And while we were praying, he felt a huge flood of healing go through his body and the pain totally disappeared!  Hallelujah!  He was crying, he was so relieved to be feeling a little better.  We will continue to pray and trust God for total healing.

Are said he was going to work yesterday, full force, which is the way he rides his bike.  Some car was blocking his vision as it pulled out of a side road, so he didn’t see a woman walking on the path he was on, until the car pulled out and then he smashed into the woman.  She was ok, but he went flying off his bike.  Fortunately, he landed on his left side, since he’s right handed.  He looked pretty tough but he was thanking God he had on a helmet and his legs are OK.  It will hopefully just take some time to heal all his wounds.  Uff da.

With Kaleb gone, Kory and I worked on hanging things on his bedroom walls, straightening up a few things in the house and going to the mall to get a few household items.  It turned out to be a terribly boring day with not much activity, but I did make banana bread only to discover neither Daniel or Andre like it.  They came home with Kaleb at dinner time to have a “double sleepover” here tonight.  I thought I’d treat them all to some warm banana bread right out of the oven, and they both took one tiny bite and wrinkled up their noses and shook their heads.  Kaleb was pleased, because it meant all the more for him.  It’s funny how many things are an acquired taste. 

After dinner tonight Kory and I went for a walk.  The rain had stopped and the setting sun provided some incredible landscapes (see today’s photos).  We then stopped in and visited Tante Kari for a while.  She’d been home alone all day with no one stopping by – not the norm for her.  Often her children, in-laws, ex-in-laws or grandchildren will buy a cake or something from the bakery and show up on her doorstep. She makes the coffee and a nice long visit ensues afterwards.  That’s pretty much her life.  She’s lucky.  Many older people in our complex get no visitors whatsoever.  I can’t imagine such a lonely existence.  I do enjoy our social life here quite a bit and wish we had more of it in America.

It’s nearly midnight and the boys are still up, playing their Nintendos.  We tried to get them to play Mexican Train or to go down in the parking garage and play hide and seek among the parked cars, but the addiction to electronics is just too hard to break. When we were out for our walk one day we saw a sign that directly translated to “Olsvika (the neighborhood where we walked) has many children, but none to lose.”  It meant of course, to drive carefully, since children are playing around in the streets.  But it was an old sign with the paint peeling off.  I’m certain now, with the invention of hand held electronics, the children are already lost. 

A Taxing Day

The sun was shining and I would have rather been outside more today, but somehow my time got taken up with Kaleb’s agenda. He wanted to go to our old neighborhood this morning to spend time with Tobias (an ex-neighbor kid), but while he was waiting for Tobias to wake up (that boy sure sleeps in late), he got a call from Andre, asking if he would like to go swimming with him and Toban. Kaleb was all excited about that possibility, and I thought it was a good idea too, until I heard Andre ask if I could go pick up them up and take them swimming. We live RIGHT next to the swimming pool, and they are about a ten minutes drive away. Their parents were working today but they were free from school and looking for something to do with their time, so I agreed to get them after I finished organizing the last of the kitchen cupboards.




While Kaleb was gone swimming, I took advantage of the quiet house to finally sit down and gather information for our Norwegian taxes for 2009. We are late in filing them, but we had to wait to do them until we were here because we needed help with a few things. The government has everything so automated, they send everyone the tax return already filled out, so all that is necessary is a signature, but if there are things somehow the government doesn’t know about, changes are necessary. Kory and I went over to the tax office to ask some questions and file our return. I’m sorry we did. The government’s version of our return showed we would be getting a few hundred dollars back, but as it turns out, they didn’t calculate the rent we received from Tante Ruth, so now we need to pay them a few thousand dollars. Ouch. I was bummed the rest of the day.



Kaleb came home from swimming with his buddies in tow. They hadn’t yet seen our place and they liked it just fine. Everyone thinks it’s so cool that we are attached to the mall and so close to everything. (That’s what makes this place special. I thought it would be noisier than it is, but it’s really pretty quiet, so I’m thankful for that. ) Kaleb was anxious to have his friends taste a particular kind of brown cheese we love. It’s not goat cheese, as I previously thought, so I love it all the more. Whoever thought to put cardamom and sugar in cheese, is brilliant. It tastes like candy and Kaleb could easily eat the half pound block we buy every few days, but I make him savor it and go slowly. Andre and Toban had never tasted it and were very happy to have seconds. Oh man, that stuff is GOOD!



The boys flew paper airplanes off our balcony down to the courtyard below, played a card game and then needed a little more action. They went to the mall with us to buy some groceries, then Kaleb suggested they go home so he could finally go over to visit Tobias. I drove them home, dropped Kaleb off at Tobias’ and headed back home to clean up our deck and plant some flowers.



The 17th of May is on Monday and everyone is working at a frantic pace to clean up their yards, patios and houses, so things are in tip-top shape for this every important national holiday. I don’t want to seem like a slacker and even though no one but us can see our balcony, it must look its best and be as festive as it can be by Monday. No pressure to conform here, no, not at all.



I needed something besides flowers to cheer me up, so I went diving into some farm history books I got from the library, looking for ancestors of my friend Stuart. I found quite a bit of information, which happily got my mind off the taxes we have coming due. Spending time with the dead is always so soothing.



Kory and I had to run Kaleb’s PJs, toothbrush and a change of clothes over to Tobias’ house as he decided to spend the night there. It was good to be back in the old neighborhood (see photo). No one is living in the Sinking Houses anymore. I suspect it is because the ground has gone down so much the sewer and electrical lines that were buried in the ground have now completely separated from the house. The houses are looking vacant and forlorn once again. But the bus stop next to our old house that Kory repainted with a Norwegian flag is still untouched with not one spot of graffiti anywhere. He’s so proud he left his mark on his motherland.

There Was Good and Bad Today

We had a big test today in class so I opted to go to a prayer meeting instead. I guess if I would have prayed more (or done my homework), I could have faced the test today, but as it is, it would have been a waste of time to go. Instead, the prayer meeting was quite thrilling, so I know I made the right choice. Those Praying Women really know how to pray. I love that I get to be with them a few times a month and today there were reports of many answered prayers, so that was encouraging. We also used more time for “soaking prayer” where we just lay on the floor and try to hear the voice of God in the stillness. It was so powerful today! I had a vision of a broken clay vessel that had been glued back together (which is how I often feel) and then I saw something shiny being poured into the pot so the inside looked perfect, smooth and radiant. I asked God how I can get the outside of the vessel to look the same as the inside and he said I couldn't. I then realized it was the glory of God that was poured into me and it’s only through the “cracks” that His glory can come shining through. I liked that vision a lot. Another woman had a vision too and hers was very powerful as well. It’s so fun to get together with women that love to get closer to God.

I decided today was the day to buy our return tickets back to America, but after sitting on the computer for three and a half hours and trying every website I could think of to buy the tickets, I gave up. I even called a few airlines and got no where. I did find out that because of the “economic crisis,” Scandinavian Airlines has dropped Seattle as a destination beginning August 1st, however. I sure wish their website would have said that, as it would have saved me at least an hour trying every possible date to buy tickets from them. Instead it just said I had made a mistake and needed to try again. And Kaleb’s slow computer only added to my frustrations as I’d click on something and have to wait nearly a minute before the screen would paint. I nearly lost my mind. It was in the 70s today and I was inside the entire afternoon trying to do one simple task. Ugh. I was nearly in tears by the time I gave up and Kaleb was in tears when I told him I couldn’t buy any tickets. He thinks he might never see his friends back home again. I assured him tomorrow is a new day and if I call a ticketing agency before 2pm when they all close, I might actually get through to someone. I will NOT take this as a “sign from God” that we are to stay here, however.

We had hoped to spend this afternoon with Tante Kari as she got transferred to a rehab center about 90 minutes from our house and she’s terribly lonely already being so far away, but instead cousin Odd wanted Kory to “help him” put a new door in his bedroom remodel, so that shot that idea. Maybe tomorrow…. And now today we found out cousin Rune (Odd’s brother) is in the hospital. Odd and Rune went out to see their mom yesterday and Rune had to stop three times to pee on the way there. Odd told him to go to the doctor and get his blood sugar checked out and sure enough, it was sky high and he’s now been diagnosed with diabetes. Good grief.

Kory and Kaleb spent an hour over at the bus stop next to our house giving it a new look (see photo). I’m a little bit worried about Kory teaching Kaleb how to do graffiti, however. All the neighbors came out and watched the show. I’m sure the way Kory was dressed increased the entertainment value. One neighbor came and took a photo and sent it in to the local paper. By 4pm it was on their website (http://www.smp.no/) and in just a few hours there were already dozens of comments about it. The bus stop had previously been covered with all kinds of graffiti including swear words and a picture of a red devil. Many people in our neighborhood are glad to be rid of that sight, but some comments on the internet are not so kind. They believe the “clown” should be prosecuted, so it’s a good thing Kory and Kaleb weren’t recognizable in their photo. Kory thinks the whole thing is hilarious but Kaleb is a little worried people will find out he contributed to it. They can always use the “freedom of expression” defense that others have used when caught doing graffiti. We’ll see how far this thing goes, but already it seems to have touched a nerve. The 17th of May parade comes right by our house, so Kory was just adding to the festivities for this time of year, but those in authority might not be so keen on his idea. It certainly is an improvement though as he painted a bigger flag on the backside of the bus stop that can be seen for blocks away. And now all the controversy it has stirred up makes Kory all the more pleased with his efforts. There is a Norwegian word for him that his brother used to call him all the time as a kid – “umulig” – which means “impossible.” And that, he is.