Today’s photo is of our name plate by our front door – another “typisk Norsk” thing. Everyone has their names by their front doors. “Her bor” means “Here lives.” I like the concept and all its practicality. My friend Wendy (who I miss a lot), painted this for us before we left. I should go around Norway and take pictures of all the different name plates and make a poster of it like I’ve seen for “The Doors of Dublin.” There is such a huge variety with these name plates, it’s very fun to see all the creativity people have – different media (wood, slate, porcelain, etc.) and different artistic venues – wood burning, carving, painting, etc. I love my name plate the best though (and not just because Wendy made it). Everyone is so impressed when they come to visit that we have such a “Norske” thing already (I was planning ahead). You’d never know we were foreigners (especially if you walked by our house last night and got a wind of the aroma from the får i kål hovering overhead.)
The weather report says we have a doozie of a storm coming tomorrow – the fall’s first one, so we have our stack of wood for the fireplace and I bought some hot chocolate today at the store, just for the coziness of it all. An article in today’s paper said to be sure and bring in all the outside furniture, so I’m not sure what to expect, but I hope we’re ready.
Kaleb had a great day at school today – kids played with him and no one beat him up. He came home in a chipper mood. He also got his “Weakly Puppy” newspaper finished up and sent out to all his subscribers today, too. He printed off a few copies to take to school as I guess he talks about it a lot and his teachers wanted to see it. I wonder what they will think… it wasn’t just about dogs, he also wrote about getting smashed in the face by a fellow student and how he wished he could take a guard dog along with him to school. So much for the reputation of the quiet, peaceful little country of Norway – Kaleb’s painting an entirely different picture of it. But then, most things in Kaleb’s world look different….
Kory spent another piddling day at home – folding laundry, doing dishes. That man has come a long way. I’m so proud of how he’s grown up! He also crawled under all the houses for his month-end measurements and photo shoot so we can write up a report next week to give to the attorney, which justifies our living here.
I am feeling rather thankful that we’d pulled all the money we had out of the stock market earlier this year, but shouting HALLELUJAH that we didn’t lose any of it yesterday because we put it in a CD at Washington Mutual. What a mess. We’re thanking the Lord for protecting our savings! Kaleb however owned 35 shares of stock in WaMu so he shed a tear over the headline news today as that was $652 he’d invested of his own money. It’s best he learn those kinds of lessons early on so he doesn’t think the stock market is a sure bet. His two shares in Costco are holding their own but his 11 shares of Krispie Kreme Donuts are still pretty low. I told him he has plenty of time to recover from his losses, but he was still a little depressed about it until Kory popped popcorn and we played yet another exciting round of “Golf” (a card game). Sabina (the neighbor girl) won in the last round by 2 points. At least it got Kaleb’s mind off his troubles.
Well, I’ve been going to Norwegian school for a month now and while I feel like my Norwegian is “ikke så bra” (not so good), I do feel like I know much more than I did a month ago. We’ll see just how much I’ve learned on Monday, as we have a huge test then – ugh. Our teacher helped us review for the test today and also explained to us some of the laws relating to working in Norway. The law here says that no one is ever allowed to work more than ten hours a week of overtime – ever. And in one calendar year, no one is EVER allowed to work more than 200 hours of overtime total. Imagine that. But after the financial crisis that’s going on – they may need to re-think that one -- as Norway had over 33 million US dollars (168 million kroner) of their citizen’s retirement fund invested in Washington Mutual stock (it made headlines over here, too). Perhaps if some of Norway’s top financial advisors had put in a few extra hours at the office this year – they might have seen that one coming.
The weather report says we have a doozie of a storm coming tomorrow – the fall’s first one, so we have our stack of wood for the fireplace and I bought some hot chocolate today at the store, just for the coziness of it all. An article in today’s paper said to be sure and bring in all the outside furniture, so I’m not sure what to expect, but I hope we’re ready.
Kaleb had a great day at school today – kids played with him and no one beat him up. He came home in a chipper mood. He also got his “Weakly Puppy” newspaper finished up and sent out to all his subscribers today, too. He printed off a few copies to take to school as I guess he talks about it a lot and his teachers wanted to see it. I wonder what they will think… it wasn’t just about dogs, he also wrote about getting smashed in the face by a fellow student and how he wished he could take a guard dog along with him to school. So much for the reputation of the quiet, peaceful little country of Norway – Kaleb’s painting an entirely different picture of it. But then, most things in Kaleb’s world look different….
Kory spent another piddling day at home – folding laundry, doing dishes. That man has come a long way. I’m so proud of how he’s grown up! He also crawled under all the houses for his month-end measurements and photo shoot so we can write up a report next week to give to the attorney, which justifies our living here.
I am feeling rather thankful that we’d pulled all the money we had out of the stock market earlier this year, but shouting HALLELUJAH that we didn’t lose any of it yesterday because we put it in a CD at Washington Mutual. What a mess. We’re thanking the Lord for protecting our savings! Kaleb however owned 35 shares of stock in WaMu so he shed a tear over the headline news today as that was $652 he’d invested of his own money. It’s best he learn those kinds of lessons early on so he doesn’t think the stock market is a sure bet. His two shares in Costco are holding their own but his 11 shares of Krispie Kreme Donuts are still pretty low. I told him he has plenty of time to recover from his losses, but he was still a little depressed about it until Kory popped popcorn and we played yet another exciting round of “Golf” (a card game). Sabina (the neighbor girl) won in the last round by 2 points. At least it got Kaleb’s mind off his troubles.
Well, I’ve been going to Norwegian school for a month now and while I feel like my Norwegian is “ikke så bra” (not so good), I do feel like I know much more than I did a month ago. We’ll see just how much I’ve learned on Monday, as we have a huge test then – ugh. Our teacher helped us review for the test today and also explained to us some of the laws relating to working in Norway. The law here says that no one is ever allowed to work more than ten hours a week of overtime – ever. And in one calendar year, no one is EVER allowed to work more than 200 hours of overtime total. Imagine that. But after the financial crisis that’s going on – they may need to re-think that one -- as Norway had over 33 million US dollars (168 million kroner) of their citizen’s retirement fund invested in Washington Mutual stock (it made headlines over here, too). Perhaps if some of Norway’s top financial advisors had put in a few extra hours at the office this year – they might have seen that one coming.
