Uten Regn (Without Rain)

The sky looked very hopeful this morning – no blue was visible but the clouds didn’t seem nearly as threatening as yesterday.  I took my chances and set the living room carpet out to dry.  Kaleb is complaining about the smell of it in the house, since I used some kind of pine cleaner to scrub it and while it’s still wet, it is pretty strong.  So I kept a careful eye on the sky today, hoping no rain would fall while that rug was outside.  I got lucky.  It didn’t start raining until after nine tonight, but the carpet still has a bit more drying to do before I can set it on the floor again.  It’s currently leaning against the outside of our front door, safe from the threat of rain, but outdoors so the smell doesn’t cause Kaleb to throw fits.  I can’t believe how much time I’ve taken just trying to clean one carpet.  It shouldn’t be this hard, but getting it professionally cleaned costs more than buying a new one.  Sad, but true.

After I posted my blog at the library this morning and did my obligatory trip to the grocery store, Kory and I actually went for a long walk today.  We hit a few new streets on our way down to visit Tante Ruth.  I’ve been pestering Kory all week to spend a little more time with her, so making her the destination for our walk was just the ticket.  As usual, she was thrilled to have us come by, but it really wasn’t a long enough visit.  She’s still up in her chair, trying to listen to TV and completely oblivious to the world around her.  I’m so thankful for all the simple things I have, after I’ve been to see her. 

I put some old bread out on the deck today to feed the little sparrows that have a nest up in the eaves of our roof.  The seagulls, crows and jays came and got most of it, but it was still nice to have birds right outside my window.

Before Kaleb got home from school I worked on a few more articles for the LaConner paper.  It’s so hard to find time to just sit and write.  I was hoping for lots of time to do that when we are here, but our social life got in the way. 

We invited Cousin Odd’s ex-wife, Inger and her brother, Knut and his wife Turid over for Enchilada soup tonight.  I got smart and made something simple.  It only took two hours to make everything instead of four or five.  I’d taken a bottle of Trader Joe’s Enchilada Sauce with me since that’s Kaleb’s favorite soup, and today was the day to use it up.  I tried a new cornbread recipe, one that doesn’t require creamed corn, and it was a good choice!  It has a cup of crispy cooked bacon bits in it, so I really liked that addition.  Yum.  And I made a salad, but as I suspected, no one touched it.  I think Norwegians think there is something scary about a fresh green salad.  At least they ate two bowls of the soup.

We had a wonderful visit after dinner with them, as we shared different things God has done in our lives.  They are strong Christians but are struggling.  Knut and Turid’s daughter gave birth to a son and when he was two years old they found out he had a genetic deficiency and wouldn’t live to adulthood.  It was the same week they found out they were pregnant with another child, who was also later diagnosed with the same problem.  One of the boys lived to be seven years old and the other, only five.  They struggle with understanding God’s plan in all that.  I was able to tell them some of the good that came out of my dad being murdered, and I reminded them that unless a seed dies, it cannot bring forth new life, so even though we don’t know now why those children died, God does, and it’s all part of His plan that we have to accept. 

It was an emotional evening, and all of us were teary more than once.  Inger and Knut’s mother just died last week.  She was 93 years old and had a good life and even told them both the day she was going to die, that “Today, I’m going to meet Jesus,” and sure enough, she did.

Inger found out recently that her first grandchild that is soon to be born to her oldest daughter, Camilla, will probably die at birth, if not before.  There is very little water surrounding the baby and they’ve detected heart defects and chromosome problems, so they are trying to prepare Camilla for a still birth, but they are all holding onto their faith and trusting God for a miracle.  We don’t know all God has planned, that’s for sure, but we do know that He has our back and He loves us more than we know.  He promises to always works things together for good, so that’s what we can focus on.  But it’s a tough time for that family, right now, for sure.

Kaleb brought Andre home for dinner and to spend the night.  After dinner they walked across the street to a youth meeting at Philadelphia Church.  Their friend Daniel was there too so he came home with them and now they are all asleep in Kaleb’s room.  That double-wide bunk bed was a smart purchase.  I love having the kids hang out here.  We played Aggravation tonight and Kaleb proved to be most aggravating.  He was proud of that.

Tina, Daniel’s mom, called to tell me that she told Daniel when he’s at our house, I’m the boss and if I tell them to stop playing electronics, he must do it immediately.  Daniel told her, “Yes, I know.  And I know what happens if I DON’T stop!”  He was referring to the fact I take away electronics from Kaleb for days on end if he doesn’t obey.  Apparently, no Norwegian parent would be so cruel.  So I’m sure Kaleb’s friends think I’m a monster. 

Kids in Norway get little or no consequences for their bad choices.   I just wonder how that will play out in twenty years time.  For some reason it makes me think about the stop signs in Turkey.  They all look like American stop signs but their word for STOP is DUR.  When I was a kid and somebody said something obvious, we’d say “Duh” or “Dur,” meaning “no kidding.”  So when I say STOP, I mean, STOP.  DUR.

Building Walls

I walked Kaleb to the bus stop this morning to be sure he got on the right one. He did. He was with Sabina all day today at school and came home very tired because a lot of his “school work” included physical activity, so that was good. He said the school was a bit boring, but he was proud the teacher gave them a math assignment and he was able to complete it first. He survived the day. Halleluljah.




Kory was able to put the wall panels up today on the frame he built yesterday for Kaleb’s bedroom wall. (See photo… the sun is shining brightly through the windows, but you can see the “step down” idea I had.) It was exciting to see how my plan looks, now that it appears nearly finished. Tomorrow he’ll need to wallpaper and paint it. They don’t texture walls here, they use a fiberglass wallpaper that has a sort of woven fabric look to it, which they paint over. Personally, I hate white walls, which we have here, but I’m going to live with them for a while. Kaleb wants the inside of his wall painted orange, but I don’t think he realizes just yet he won’t see an inch of it, as it will be taken up end to end with a closet and shelving. The wall happened quicker than I expected, but slower than Kory hoped. Everyone that stopped by today thinks it was a brilliant idea because it didn’t make the living room seem at all boxed in or smaller, yet it provides privacy to Kaleb and it blocks the view of his bed from the living room. It think it is a clever design, if I do say so myself and I’m quite pleased with it.



It was yet another gorgeous day here on the coast of Norway, but again, I didn’t get out much. I was off early this morning to a prayer meeting that lasted three hours. We had a FANTASTIC time in soaking prayer, then praying for one another. I had some incredible visions while I was praying for people that were very specific and meant a lot to each of them, so it felt good to be used by God in such a way. I hated to leave, but I was invited over for coffee to my friend Tina’s house. She wanted me to see the new kitchen they put in since I was last here. We chatted for a few hours then her son, Daniel, came home from school so I brought home to play with Kaleb (they are friends). Kaleb loved spending all afternoon literally running around our place with him. They discovered having so many flights of stairs makes playing tag a real hoot. Kaleb used the elevator a time or two and I noticed some of the old folks that live around us sat and watched them play. I was hoping they were enjoying the kid energy, not disgusted by all the noise they were making.



Tonight I nearly forgot I was invited to attend a women’s home fellowship group meeting. I was praying for Kaleb as he went to bed for the night at 8:40, and then I remembered I was supposed to be somewhere at 8:30! I rushed over to the meeting, and there they all patiently sat, waiting for me before they started. They were supposed to meet last night but they shifted it to tonight because I was busy last night, so I felt even more terrible that I was late. Norwegians are very forgiving and tolerant people so no one was offended or upset. We had a great time of prayer and Bible study, good desserts and coffee, and I’m so glad I went, until that coffee kept me awake til after midnight (when I’m writing this.) The nap I took this afternoon probably contributed to the problem as well when I took a little time this afternoon to sun myself out on our deck (I quickly fell asleep in the heat).



One of the most common sights on a sunny day in the whole of Norway, is people sitting out on their decks or patios, soaking up some sunshine. They know how to get their Vitamin D, as they sit with much skin exposed. It’s VERY normal for women to be sunning themselves (or walking around the neighborhood, even) wearing just a bra on their top half. I kept my shirt on and sunned just my face, even though it was hot enough I could have gone shirt-less. There is an old woman that lives below us and over one unit that I often see sunning herself. It’s not a pretty sight. She has enormous boobs and her bra only contains about half of them. All I can think about is that BBQing on our deck is not allowed because the smell offends people, but then I wonder why they allow everyone to sun themselves in such a way. I’m so American.

Testing 1-2-3

Kaleb and I both went back to school today. It was good to get out of the house, even if it was raining. I don’t know why I bothered to go to school, however, because it was just another big testing day. We had another practice run at the Norskprøve 3 test as some in our class will be taking it for real in a few weeks. It was painful, but I did get to write an essay on the differences between schools in America and schools in Norway, so at least I got to vent a little (on both sides). Kaleb also got to take a practice test today – the big end of the school year test all student’s must take before advancing to the next level. He told me all the kids in his class took the 5th grade entrance test, but his teacher gave him the 8th grade one because it was just in math and English and he’s pretty good in both of those. He thought it was all too easy.

Kory spent his morning trying to get the car tested. Once a year Norway requires all cars to go through a certification process and all Kory could do was make an appointment for next week. I was thinking we should have had the car tested before we planned to use it for our road trip, just in case anything is seriously wrong with it and we can’t afford to get it fixed. But I’m trusting God on that one. The car seems fine, but who knows. The certification test alone costs well over a hundred dollars and if anything needs fixing, it could break the bank, as car repairs are outrageously expensive. Cars in general are obscenely expensive to own in Norway anyway. A new car purchased in Norway comes with 100% sales tax, plus a thousand dollar deposit that is returned when the car makes its way to the junkyard. They are now talking about increasing that deposit to around fifteen thousand dollars just to encourage more people to turn their cars in sooner.

There are quite a few differences between owning cars in Norway versus America. For one thing, they don’t make it easy to drive here. It takes over a year to attend a driving course just to get a license. No one under 18 is allowed to drive. The process of getting a license costs about six grand, but once a person obtains a driver’s license, it doesn’t expire until their 100th birthday. (That’s a funny sight to see on a license.) Once a driver turns 70 years old, however, they need to go in for recertification every year to test their eyesight and reflexes and driving knowledge. And I just found out today that insurance is not pro-rated. It must be paid annually, and can’t be cancelled. We are going to be using our car for one week past its renewal date and we have to pay insurance for the entire year – over a thousand dollars for it to just sit in a garage while we are out of the country. (At least we can use it when we come back.)

The tabs on our car cost over five hundred dollars a year, which is actually much cheaper than most people pay because we have an older car. The tabs are based on the age of the car, how big the engine is, how much it weighs and how much cubic feet is available for passengers inside the vehicle. We have a mini-van with the last seat section removed for extra luggage space. The previous owners had the middle seat scooted up as far as they could get it behind the driver’s seat so their tabs would be cheaper. (They apparently never used the back seat because there is no leg room back there. It works OK for us because Kaleb sits in the middle, but it’s a tight squeeze with adults back there.) A two passenger vehicle pays the least amount for tabs and they get a green license plate to show just how special they are (as opposed to the white ones on vehicles that can hold more than two passengers). And all vehicles with any kind of storage space available behind the seats, like a hatch back or our mini van, are required to have a wire wall separating the spaces so that items in the back won’t come hurling forward in case of a collision. Not a bad idea. It’s also not a bad idea that the police set up random check points every now and then and pull people over for no seat belts or for talking on a cell phone while driving. And last of all, no one here drives without insurance. The insurance company is in ka-hootz with the police and the car registration place and somehow they have that one figured out. I know when we got our van they would not release the license plates to us until we showed we had proof of insurance. I wouldn’t be surprised if the police impounded a vehicle if the insurance premiums aren’t paid. They don’t mess around with that stuff here. Driving is a privilege and I’m very thankful we have that freedom. It’s made all the difference this year as we love not having to bother Turid anymore to take us places and we love to go on road trips. Taking the bus works fine for me now that I know the routes, and my bike is great on sunny days. I heard someone here say they visited America once but they hated it because it was impossible to get around unless they had a car. So sad, but true. Europe has the whole “mass transit” thing figured out so it’s possible to never even own a car. But I think that would be sad. I love to drive!