Back to School Blues

We had a rough start back to school this morning. Lots of snow outside meant extra time finding gloves and hats and reflective gear. Kaleb didn’t get up when he was called so we were more than rushed and nearly missed the bus. I hate that early morning scramble and it is the ONE thing I won’t miss about living here. Back home we just got up when we wanted and started school after breakfast, whenever that was. This disciplined life is for the birds. Then I was late for school because the bus was late getting me to town so I hate that even more – walking in on the class when it’s well underway. And this was the first day in our new classroom at our new school, which I also hate. I definitely suffered from the Monday morning blues today. I’m not usually this grumpy but all the planets collided in my world today – even my pal Vestina stayed at home because she was sick so she wasn’t sitting next to me all day cracking me up with just a shift of her eyebrow at the right moment. Poor me.

I came to the conclusion today that I’m just going to go to class four days a week from now until June. I’ve completed my “obligatory” 250 hours already but I do want to keep learning the language – I just need one day a week to myself. Kory only works Mondays and Tuesdays so he is at home alone for three days a week and I’ve been getting jealous of that as I feel like I’m on a treadmill and I’ll only get off when we move back home. On Kory’s days off he sleeps in so I still have to get up earlier than I’d like to so I can make Kaleb breakfast and lunch and get him out the door – same routine as on the days Kory works. When I come home on Kory’s days off he gloats that he was able to sleep in, then get up and just sit and relax and have a cup of coffee (or two), listen to music, read his Bible, do a little drawing… with no interruptions. Every minute I’m home, Kaleb is home, as we have the same schedule, so I rarely get time just to be alone and do nothing. When Kaleb is at the afterschool program I’m going grocery shopping or running errands and getting home later than usual, but just in time for him to get home. So I made a declaration today to Kory and Kaleb (and The Good Teacher Inga), that I’m taking Mondays off from now on. I’m sure it will cure the Monday morning blues. Even if I get the blues on Tuesdays, they can’t be nearly as bad.

Today I felt like I’d forgotten every bit of Norwegian I’ve learned so far as I didn’t speak it much over the break because we were too lazy to do so. But now I’m back in the saddle and trying to warm up my brain again. The only thing of interest I learned in class today was from one of my classmates who is from Columbia. We were talking about refugees and those coming to Norway, basically, against their will. If there is war in their country and they seek asylum somewhere, there is some governing board, (perhaps the U.N.?) that dishes out these people to different countries. The refugees have no say as to where they will live. So we read something today about a refugee from Columbia and I questioned that, as I didn’t think that was a country in the midst of a Civil War. My classmate said that if the guerillas flee the country they can enter into the same refugee status and come live in Norway because they are basically “wanted” men and will be killed if they are caught. No one else from her country is allowed into Norway unless they have a job here or marry a Norwegian. So chances are pretty good that all Columbian men in Norway were once a terrorist. What a wonderful piece of news that was. It added depth to the blueness of my day.

After school today I went to visit my pal Vestina. She was running a fever and had a sore throat and needed some TLC. I shipped to Norway all my favorite medicinal herbal teas from America so I took the bus over to her place and made her a cup of Throat Coat tea and left her with several bags of Gypsy Cold Care and Breathe Easy teas made by Traditional Medicines (my favorites when I’m sick). She’ll be better in no time. We had a nice talk about school, Norway and men. She’s sure no one is meant to live with a man for more than five years and she was very curious how I was able to stay with Kory for nearly twenty - she thinks that should be impossible. I told her with God, all things are possible. I told her everyone has differences, everyone has problems and she can’t expect to get all her needs met from just one person, so for me, that’s where God comes in to the picture. He meets all my needs, and it takes a lot of pressure off my relationship with Kory. She’s only 22. I’m not sure she fully understood, but at least she listened. I prayed for her and will trust God to fill in the gaps. He hasn’t let me down yet and I don’t expect He ever will. (We can’t always say THAT about the people we love, but we love them anyway, even on our blue days.)

Our Beautiful Place

We took it easy today so I think we’re finally getting into the “day of rest” groove this whole country has going on here. We barely made it up and out the door in time for church. I didn’t sleep well last night so I needed all the sleep I could get. I wish I had one more week off before starting school tomorrow. Kaleb feels the same. I’m wondering if the back-to-school anxiety is what got him in trouble at Sunday school this morning! His teacher told me he was hitting another boy and then when she asked him why he would do such a thing he gave her a smart mouth reply, “YOU tell ME why I would be doing such a thing.” Ugh. We had a long talk with him, took away his Nintendo for yet another day and made him write a letter of apology to his teacher. He swears he wasn’t really hitting the kid - that they were doing hand motions to a song and the kid got in front of him while he was doing them. I doubt that’s the whole truth, but his response to his teacher is what got him in the most trouble. That whole “disrespect” thing has reared its ugly head and we are at a loss as to how to deal with it. Some days I worry this is just the beginning and we have all those teenage years to look forward to, and other days I want to think it’s just a fluke and it won’t happen again. Denial is a much happier place to be in, that’s for sure. I’ll go with denial for now. I need happy.

After church I started taking down Christmas decorations. I think I’m a few days premature but I’m ready to start fresh tomorrow with going back to school and having a clean house again and everything back in its place. As I was standing in the living room taking the ornaments off the tree, I saw the tops of the mountains start to turn a wonderful pink color and I knew we were in for a most incredible sunset (it was around 3pm). Kory and I grabbed our jackets and snow boots and walked down the street to “our” beach to take a few photos. We just stood there watching the sky changing, the lighting shifting, the colors morphing, it was awesome (see photo!). I found a rock ledge to set the camera down so we could use the timer to snap one photo of us, but I took a few dozen of all the surrounding mountains. It was incredible and I’m still in awe that we get to live in such a beautiful place. It nourishes my soul like nothing else has.

Kaleb spent the afternoon over at Tobias’ house (which probably has a little less stress in it for him) so after the sunset Kory and I just kept on walking around the neighborhood. We stopped in for a visit with cousin Axel and Kari and they couldn’t have been happier that we dropped by. Kari said years ago people used to drop in on neighbors, but now things have gotten a little more formal and people are worried if their houses are clean enough or if people are just too busy with other things, so that tradition is going by the way side. I told her one of my favorite sayings is, “If you want to see my house, give me three days notice, but if you want to see ME, drop by anytime.” She liked that and will try to remember the sentiment. It’s fun to teach Norwegians some American sayings. The other day we were talking about someone who we described as “the lights are on but no one is home,” and cousin Odd about bust a gut over that one. He thought that was a much better way of describing that type of person than the saying they have for it here, which, when translated, means “they are poorly furnished.” Then Kory started telling him all the other ways we describe some people as “one brick short of a full load,” or “the elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top,” stuff like that. I think that was the best entertainment Odd had all day.

While we were at Axel and Kari’s today I watched Kari preparing dinner and I learned how to make salad the way her grandmother used to make it. (She invited us to eat with them but I already had dinner made.) She cut up iceberg lettuce in thin strips and placed it in a bowl. Then in another bowl she whipped up a lot of cream, added some sugar and a little bit of white vinegar and mixed it in with the lettuce so it was well coated and that was it – cream and lettuce. It was quite tasty but who would have ever thought up that one? I’ve never seen so much dairy used to make a meal as here in Norway, but their dairy products are far superior to ours in the U.S. so I don’t blame them. Any recipe I’ve made using the dairy products here tastes much better than what I’ve made back home. The government doesn’t allow all the hormones and antibiotics in the cows and all the cows here are “free range,” so apparently that makes a huge difference. A happy cow obviously produces good milk. (Maybe I should have been happier when I was pregnant with Kaleb.)

A Simpler Life

We had snow off and on today, which made me happy. I was worried it all might turn to rain and get slushy before we could get out and enjoy it a little. Even though Kaleb and I slept in until 11am, we still managed to get outside before the sun went down. Kory drove us out to Langevåg with the intention of shopping at the sweater factory there, but alas, they were still closed for the holidays. But as it goes in these parts, we ran into people we know, so it wasn’t a wasted trip afterall. The sweater factory has a nice café attached to it (which WAS open today) and there sat our neighbor, Tone (Sabina’s mom) at one table, and Josef Kloven and his wife Camille at another table (a guy we know from Seattle who lives here now). So we ordered up some cocoa and did what the locals do on a winter weekend afternoon, we sat down for a chat. It felt so decadant to have both the time and money to just sit in a café and order something to drink and have nowhere in particular we needed to be. It was the first time we have done that since we’ve been here. Afterwards we drove around Langevåg and gave Kaleb the “Kory history tour.” We showed him one place after another that had some significance in Kory’s life – the school he attended, a house where he once lived, the dock where he took the ferry over to his grandparent’s home, the spot where he got in trouble for hitting a pig just to make it squeal, a house his father built, the place where he started a fire and nearly burned down a house, and the grave of his grandfather (that he never knew). We also drove out to the lake where he first learned to swim and where he’d go ice skating in the winter. It was frozen over today (see photo), but not solidly enough we could venture out onto the ice. Evenso, Kaleb enjoyed stepping on the edge just to see how much weight it would hold before it cracked (I was holding tight to his hand while he was doing it.) The snow came and went all afternoon and I got some nice photos as we were driving around. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon. And when we got home I went for a long walk around our own neighborhood just to see all the Christmas lights one last time as they will soon be coming down. Christmas trees were all still up and with the snow on the ground, it nearly felt like we had a White Christmas afterall.

A few people forwarded me an e-mail a few weeks ago that showed Christmas trees from around the world. They were all spectacular trees with fancy and abundant lighting, but I knew for a fact, I wouldn’t encounter a picture from any tree in Norway. Norwegians are pretty simplistic when it comes to lights and Christmas decorations. The average Christmas tree around here has 20 lights on it – that’s it. Even the big tree in the center of town has just a few dozen lights. They seem so incomplete to me, but that’s just the way they are. I heard someone in my Norsk class talking about it too – that she was at the lighting ceremony for the city tree and when they turned on the lights she yelled out, “That’s it? That’s all the lights you have?” It’s almost comical how few lights there are but I’m sure it comes from the tradition that not that long ago they didn’t use lights – they used real candles – and there weren’t that many that could be lit all at one time on the tree, so it makes sense from that standpoint, but it sure makes American Christmas trees seem gaudy. But then, many things we American’s do are gaudy and excessive by Norwegian standards.

Tonight Jonathan and Espen (Kory’s bosses) came over to discuss the The Sinking Houses. The paperwork needs to be submitted next week to complete the sale, but first they need an appraisal done because all the bank financing hinges on the value of the houses and none of us know just what that might be. Because of all the bad press around these places it could be a very low amount, but we have no idea. When the houses were new and unfinished on the inside, each house sold for about $240,000 but now they are being sold for $85,000 each because of the sinking ground. If they appraise for a high enough value, there is a chance Jonathan and Espen can get 100% financing and they won’t need our help to buy them and then we won’t need to form a partnership. But if they need our help, we’ll have to figure out what kind of partnership arrangement we should have since they will be the most hands on and we’ll be long gone. Kory is still very excited about all this and I’m just trusting God for whichever way it goes. I can take it or leave it as there are risks and rewards if we go in on the deal and “life as usual” if we don’t. I keep wanting to simplify things, but it just doesn’t happen. Our life is already so darn complicated I can no longer do our American tax return and have to pay an accountant to figure out how much money we need to pay the governmnet. There seems something inheritantly wrong with that whole scenario, so when I think of “partnerships” I think “complicated tax returns” and ours is already complicated enough. Maybe there is some wisdom in the whole simplistic way Norwegians do things - even decorating a Christmas tree - as it’s not very complicated to untangle a string with only twenty lights.

The Perfect Storm

It was bound to happen. Late nights, not enough sleep, a little too much freedom – and ka-pow – my sweet little boy turns ugly. All I asked him to do was clean his room. But no, he wanted to do other things. It just breaks my heart when he makes choices that result in nasty consequences, but such is the job of the parent. So today he got no Nintendo, no computer, no DVD time, no Pokemon cards and the final blow was, no time to play with Tobias. He threatened to run away from home after that one. But his behavior kept escalating to such heights of disrespect and disobedience with each consequence he received, there was no way out. Even by day’s end he was blaming me for all his troubles, not once wanting to take responsibility for the choices he made. He cried buckets and I nearly cried myself. Kory just busied himself with vacuuming and cleaning up a bit as tensions ran high for a few hours in our house today. But finally a peace came, Kaleb settled down and read a book, I started getting dinner ready and Kory went to check on how the empty houses here are doing. He also took Kaleb for a short walk in the snow just to get him out of the house. Oh the snow! It’s been snowing all day. I’ve only seen it out the window today as we had company coming for dinner and there was much to do. I needed to go through Kaleb’s closets and sort through the clothes he’s outgrown. We invited Kory’s mom’s cousins for dinner (two brothers and their wives). The couple on the left (Olav and Jørun) are parents to Bjørn (Tobias’ sort-of step-dad) and the other couple (Terje and Lila) have a grandson a few years younger than Kaleb that I wanted to pass his clothes on to, so that precipitated the purge. (I’m starting to like “the purge” and think I might try to incorporate it a little more into my life.)

So tonight we had a lovely evening visiting with the Solevåg cousins (massive snowfall alters NO plans here). I still struggle with understanding their Norwegian because their dialect is so strong but I understood most of it, which is an improvement from previous visits with all of them. Every time we come to Norway we visit with Terje and his wife Lila, who live across the fjord in Sykkylven, and we’ve eaten many a meal at their table, so it was finally my pleasure to cook something for them and have them to our house for a change. And naturally, the conversation always turns to the family tree as Terje is the one in the family who has done all the work in hunting down the names of the dead relatives. We share that same love so it’s always a kick for me to be with him, even if I can’t understand everything that he says. He suggested that while I’m here I should go meet with some of the elderly cousins and write down their family history memories as no one has documented anything and once they die, the stories die with them. “Jeg kan gjør det,” I said. (I can do that.) And I will.

I finally got my phone/internet bill today. I’ve been wondering why it hasn’t come as we’ve had service now for four months, but as I’ve discovered, billing here in Norway is a little different than in America. There are very few things that get billed monthly. People aren’t as transient here as they are in America so I guess it makes more sense. (If you have property to rent out, by law, you have to sign a three year lease with the tenants.) Electric and utility bills come quarterly, phone bills come bi-annually, insurance bills come annually. So my phone/internet bill was for six months and it was close to eight hundred dollars and that included two months free phone service because I was a new customer. I’m glad I set money aside every month waiting to get that bill so it won’t hurt so much to pay it now. The internet connection is almost $90 a month no matter how much it’s used. The basic phone service is $20 a month, but they charge additional rates for all the calls. Incoming calls are one price, outgoing are another, calls to a cell phone are the most expensive and calls to America are pretty reasonable. They also charge $7 for printing the bill and sending it to me. One time I had to pay $10 for a bill I received for Kaleb’s afterschool program because THEY made a billing mistake and when I pointed it out, they sent a corrected bill but by the time I got it, it was past the original due date so I got a late fee. There was no arguing with them on it either. I went into their office in downtown Ålesund to point out the absurdity of penalizing me for their mistake. The billing person said she agreed with me, it didn’t make sense, but everything is computerized and you can’t tell a computer what’s “fair,” so I had to pay the ten bucks. As advanced as computers are supposed to be, when it comes right down to it, they are a lot like ten year old boys who just don’t “get it” when they’ve done something wrong.

A New Year Begins

Kaleb and I slept until noon. I can’t think of a better way to start the year. And when we got out from under our blankets, we saw that the world outside our window was covered in a white blanket of its own, as more snow was falling fiercely from the sky. Oh how I love a good snow day.

We didn’t have much on the agenda today, which was good. We just all sat around and read for a while and had a genuine Norwegian “slapp av” day (relaxed). Kaleb wasn’t awake long before the desire to be with Tobias kicked in. Tobias called just as we were finishing up breakfast so they were together the rest of the day. Kaleb strapped on his cross-country skis and headed over to Tobias’ house to play Nintendo, Guitar Hero and Wii fitness. Kory and I spent the alone time figuring out the partnership and financial details of buying The Sinking Houses.

This is the first year in a long time we haven’t had our annual “business meeting” on the 1st day of the year. Normally, we get a hotel room and leave Kaleb with friends and we go talk about our plans for the year; what home improvement projects we want to focus on, what vacations we want to take, how we will pay for it all. It’s always a good idea to be on the same page when it comes to the big ticket items in life and we have always enjoyed the time we take to work out the business details in our relationship. I bring my planner and we check on dates, figure out the hows and whens and at least start the year off agreeing about something because Lord knows we spend enough time the rest of the year disagreeing about other things (but then, that’s what makes our relationship so “interesting”.) But this year is already pretty well scripted out so we don’t have as much to talk about. We just sat over a cup of coffee and talked about this new scenario with buying the houses, and how it all might play out. We aren’t quite sure yet of all the details but Kory is very excited to be part of the picture. The bottom line for me is always how it will pencil out and right now the biggest thrill I’m getting is that we will be able to write off the cost of our future trips to Norway from our American income tax return – woo hoo.

Tobias came home with Kaleb so after dinner we all watched a movie together and Kory popped kettle corn (popcorn with sugar). I probably should have gone for a walk today or something, but since I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions to increase my physical activity or any such nonsense, I was just happy to sit on my butt and organize some files on my computer. Kory and I did get out for about an hour as we went over to wish the tantes a Happy New Year. Tante Kari said Ruth wasn’t getting out of bed today because she’s made herself sick just worrying about her latest test results, which she’ll get back next week. She finds out then just how quickly her cancer is spreading. We know it’s in her lungs now but she’s worried it has spread throughout her whole body. I’m sure, if she finds out it’s not spreading very quickly, she’ll be back to her perky self again. So, we didn’t go see Ruth. Instead we visited with Tante Kari and showed her pictures and video clips from the dog sled trip. She was quite happy for us and so glad we are having such a good time here in Norway (so are we). Her granddaughter Caroline was there visiting too. She is home from Oslo for the holidays and it’s always nice when we can see her. She came and lived with us for six weeks the summer after Kaleb was born and took care of him while Kory and I worked on the house, as it was far from completed back then. She’d always dreamed of going to America so we were happy to give her that opportunity (we even drove her to Disneyland.) Now I think, Tobias will be our next long term visitor from Norway as he talks about coming to visit us once we go back. He might just have to move in with us for good, as Kaleb will be going through serious withdrawls once we leave. I can’t even begin to think about it.

Tobias and Kaleb broke apart our Gingerbread house today they made a few weeks ago. I guess the breaking up and eating of the houses is a big deal in Norway. Last night Kaleb and Benjamin broke apart their houses (Kaleb helped make them when he spent the night a while ago.) We’ve always had the hardest time getting the houses we make at home to even stay together and by Christmas, they are barely standing. But here in Norway they use a “secret” ingredient - egg white - mixed in with the powdered sugar and it’s so effective as glue that Kaleb really hurt his hand when he karate chopped the house and it didn’t come apart. It was so comical to watch these “Norwegian built” houses stand FIRM and not break up. There’s got to be a lesson in there somewhere but it’s now after midnight and I can’t think of it.

Happy New Year!

Kaleb woke up this morning not feeling too well so we weren’t sure if any of our plans for today were going to happen. But we prayed for him and let him lay on the couch all morning to see how things would go. Kory climbed under the houses to take his month end measurements (the ground is still sinking), and I watched some home videos of when Kaleb was between two and five years old. What a hoot that was. Tobias came over this afternoon and it turns out he had the same symptoms as Kaleb this morning – hot and cold – queasy stomach – not hungry – but by late this afternoon they were both doing fine so we didn’t have to cancel anything.

Norwegians have certain traditions around New Year’s Eve as much as they do around Christmas, as we found out today. For one thing, they serve the exact same food for dinner on New Year’s Eve as they do on Christmas Eve. It’s food that is only available for purchase this time of year, so they eat it when they can and they can’t think of anything they like better. Too funny. It’s also another day to dress formally, even if they are just sitting at home. Dead loved ones are also remembered on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve as the tradition is to visit the cemetery and place candles on their graves that burn all night long (there are special candles made just for this tradition). It's cool to drive by the cemetery this time of year as it's all lit up! And if anyone is having a party, they also light special outdoor candles and set them by the doorstep or driveway to light the way for their guests. (Stores and restaurants also do this all winter, which makes it very easy to see which businesses are open and which aren’t.) The King gives a speech on New Year’s Eve and everyone watches it on TV. And tomorrow, the Prime Minister delivers a speech. I guess not as many people watch that one so they have now started to allow gambling to make the speech a little more interesting. There is a website set up where anyone can go and place any amount of wager they want on exactly which words may be included in tomorrow’s speech. Some obvious words like “crisis” or “America” might have very low odds, but some out of the blue words, if used in the speech, could pay a huge dividend. I guess that’s one way to get people to listen more closely to the politicians. They all love their King, but they aren’t all that thrilled with the Prime Minister. Again, too funny.

But the most well-loved tradition for today is that fireworks are allowed. It’s the only day all year they can be used. When Kory and I were here on New Year’s Eve 18 years ago (and got engaged), the only thing we saw in the sky were flares. All over the city, people shot up red flares and they would take the longest time coming down out of the sky so it made for quite an alien scene. But things have progressed over the years and now fireworks have become legal on New Year's Eve so all day long they have been blasting around the neighborhood. And it’s pitch black by 4pm so there’s been a steady stream of them going off, much to the dismay of the neighborhood cats and dogs, but to the delight of all the children.

We were invited to Odd and Turid’s for dinner tonight so we had a nice time at their house this evening eating the traditional food (which Kory absolutely loves, I avoid, and Kaleb is working on aquiring a taste for) and then at ten o’clock we left there to go to another cousin’s house for a real fireworks display at midnight. Axel and Kari’s son-in-law got special permission to shoot off the kind of fireworks that explode way up in the sky (see photo and video). Last weekend he drove to Oslo (8 hours each way) to make his own fireworks with a friend that works in the business. He was pretty excited to put on a show for his family and friends – to the tune of $5,000 for about four minutes of action (which he paid for.) Unbelievable. My brain is so geared to seeing those kinds of fireworks on a warm summer evening, cuddled under a blanket on the shores of Big Lake with watermelon and bar-b-qued salmon still in my gut, so it was a little bit of a shock to be standing out by the edge of the fjord, in the freezing snow, at midnight, watching both the snow fall and the fireworks explode at the same time. In a way, it was very cool, literally, but also a little strange. I loved the snow and the fireworks and that it’s a New Year – it’s just weird they all came at the same time. (We finally got more snow today – three inches and counting – woo hoo!)

I’m writing this at 4am as we just got home from that party. These Norwegians can stay up all night and just talk and eat. We were the first ones to leave. One of Kory’s bosses was at the party and he said he’s very excited to be able to buy The Sinking Houses. I think they are going to set up a business partnership, and we will become one of the partners because they want to include Kory in this deal . Talk about the perfect scenario – we get a piece of the action, but don’t have to do any of the grunt work. I like that set up much better than owning them just by ourselves. So this New Year should be quite interesting as there is much on the horizon and where God leads, we will follow.

First Ski Day in Norway

I think all of us would have slept half the day away if we didn’t have to get up so Kory and Kaleb could so skiing today. But fortunately, the ski slope is nearby and the days are short so there is still time tonight to catch up on lost sleep. Kaleb used ski poles for the first time today and Kory said he did very well. He doesn’t like to tack back and forth going down any hill – he prefers the fastest, straightest method down, so I’m glad he wears a helmet and I’m not there to watch him. (In the photo, he is on the left, Tobias is on the right.) One of Tobias’ twin brothers decided to stay home today so Kory just got to ski on his own all day while his cousin, Bjørn, taught the other twin the fine art of alpine skiing. Kory took a few video clips of the boys coming down the mountain so that was fun for me to see when they got home. All in all, it was a pleasant day for them as the weather was just fine and the ski slope wasn’t very crowded.

I spent the day doing almost nothing. I cleaned up a little and put away stuff from our trip. We got a few packages from home yesterday so I went through the mail, paid bills and read the news from the local LaConner paper. I also sat and tried to figure out how we might be able to get access to some money in our American bank account if Kory’s bosses need some help coming up with the down payment to buy The Sinking Houses. Kory wouldn’t mind being a silent partner in the deal so he wants to be sure we have money available if the opportunity presents itself. But with all the new banking rules that came into play since 9/11 it is impossible to transfer money out of America unless we go into the bank directly. We can’t request money be sent to us here, in other words, unless we fly home first and sign on the dotted line. I think that’s insane, but it is what it is. I can only pull $500 a day from the bank machine and it gets so old to get all the money we need every month in those increments, but it’s the only option available. We were even limited on how much cash we could bring into Norway, so having our main source of income outside this country and needing access to it every month has proven to be the biggest hassle in living here. At least we DO have money to pay the bills and buy groceries though so I’m thankful for that.

I can’t believe tomorrow is the last day of the year already. My girlfriends back home have been e-mailing me with their New Year’s resolutions and I nearly forgot about that tradition as my mind has been on other things. I have no idea what the New Year will bring. There are so many gloom and doom predictions for the future of America that we hear about in the news over here, that I don’t even want to think about the future. I just want to live each day as it comes. Our plans are still to be home sometime in September and we expect to be leaving Norway by early July to travel around Europe before heading home, but we are up for whatever God has in mind so our plans could change at any time.

Cousin Turid called me today to tell me about a “situation.” She didn’t ask for prayer directly, but she thought it was a good idea when I offered to pray about it. Her good friend (who now lives in Oslo) just came into port in Miami yesterday from a week long Caribbean cruise with her husband and two teenage children. They were all lying around the pool at a hotel in Miami when their 14 year old son said he was going back to the room. When they went to the room, he was gone. He had taken his passport and cash and they had no idea where he was. He had been talking about his dream which was to go to Los Angeles and try his hand at being an actor so his parents were worried sick that he took off in pursuit of that – not fully understanding how far California is away from Florida. Needless to say, Miami is no place for a 14 year old Norwegian boy to be roaming about. They filed a missing person’s report and it was on the evening news in Miami last night, as well as on the news here in Norway. I prayed all afternoon for that boy and finally, several hours later, Turid called to say someone had spotted him and called the police – so he got reunited with his parents and he was in good shape. I was so thankful for that answered prayer and Turid said she nearly shouted “Hallelujah” too, but she is a Norwegian, after all. And I had one more occasion to shout Hallelujah today, as my classmate Sandra, sent me a text message on my cell phone to let me know that she is pregnant! I’ve been praying for her since September and it’s finally happened, so now we trust God to see her through this pregnancy. It’s her own Christmas miracle as she flew to Latvia just a few days before Christmas for in-vitro. (We dog sat her dog while she was gone.) What incredible news that is. So even though it was an at-home day for me, it was still full of thrills and chills. Hallelujah!

A Scenic Drive

I can’t believe our “luck” in the timing of this road trip. Most of the roads we traveled on today are either closed in winter or require chains (which we don’t have). But the last storm was more than a week ago and all the roads were in pretty good shape so we were able to drive for nine hours without any problems. I’m so thankful for that and I don’t believe for a minute it was luck. God is good - all the time.

We all had an incredibly good night’s sleep and after a top notch breakfast (all hotels in Norway provide a free buffet breakfast in the morning), we set out just after daylight to head home. We were able to cut about an hour off our time because Kory stopped and asked about the condition of a certain short-cut road we were afraid to take on the way down because it was dark and we didn’t know if chains were required. The road was solid ice, but it had been sanded so we didn’t have any trouble with our winter tires, and it provided some beautiful scenery along the way . Of course, there wasn’t a single bad spot for scenery today (except in the tunnels) and I’m sure I took a few hundred photos (see above of Kory standing on the edge of an incredibly still fjord). The sun is so low this time of year, even when it was “up” it only touched the very tops of all the mountains around us and never once reached down in any of the valleys. It made for some incredible “lighting” shots. We even stopped and got a close up view of the Borgund Stave Church, built in 1180. It’s so hard to imagine a wood structure that could last over eight hundred years, but a few years ago we found how that is possible. A year before any timber is cut down to build anything, the bark is completely stripped off the tree. The tree, in an effort to save itself, emits a type of pitch that acts as the perfect wood preservative and neither insect nor rot can harm it. I’m not sure if it’s just a type of tree found only here in Norway or if all trees would do that, but it’s pretty incredible nonetheless. And, over the years, a type of tar is added to the wood to help keep it preserved, but it’s pretty mind boggling to stand in a structure that is so incredibly old – and beautiful (see photo). I’ve also heard that wood structures near the coast of Norway only last about a hundred years because of the harshness of the weather – but buildings more in the center of Norway, even though the winters are super cold, they don’t get the battering storms the coast gets so all the oldest buildings in Norway will be found there.

We went through dozens of tunnels today and took four ferries to get home (to the tune of $150 in tolls and fees). I used those “downtimes” to read “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” It’s a favorite book of ours and we usually read it Christmas Eve morning, but we forgot this year. (Our friend, Bev Mohr, turned us on to this tradition and it’s a keeper!) Kaleb protested when he realized it was another missed tradition, so I brought it along and read it in bits and pieces with flashlight in hand as a way to pass the time in the tunnels. We all laugh out loud every time we read it.

It’s still Christmas around here. Even in the SAS Hotel where we stayed they had up a schedule yesterday for “The Fourth Day of Christmas” – as the celebration goes right on for the full Twelve Days of Christmas. All the Christmas lights are still shining brightly and the festivities linger. Most businesses are closed or only working half days and all the churches were closed yesterday because even the staff deserves time to visit their loved ones this time of year. I love that – spreading out the season so long – then there is no “next day” depression that it’s all over for another year. By the time they are done celebrating Christmas around here – it’s already a few days into the New Year and minds are set on what is to come.

We were happy to get home tonight before 7pm since both Kory and Kaleb have to get up early tomorrow morning to go skiing with Tobias and Kory’s second cousin, Bjørn (who is Tobias’ mom’s “samboer” – that’s the word they use to describe a committed couple that is living together but haven’t gotten legally married.) Tobias’ mom (Inger) and Bjørn have 5 year old twin boys together and the boys got their first pair of alpine skis for Christmas. Inger doesn’t ski, so Bjørn thought Kory could go along and help teach one of the twins how to ski, he could teach the other one, and Kaleb and Tobias could ski together for the day. It should be an interesting time for all of them and I’ll just be glad to be home alone for a change. As much fun as it is to go on road trips, it’s always best to come home. I just wish our house would have been a little warmer when we got here as Kory forgot and left the wall vents open (they are like little windows) so it was 46 degrees in the house and 37 degrees outside. I’ve had enough cold to last me a while so a hot bath is in my foreseeable future. Brrrr.

A Dream Come True

Today reminded me of the Bible verse that says something like “Crying may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” What an incredible day today was! It nearly erased the brutality of last night as today was beyond all expectations FANTASTIC!

Niklas, our host, brought us warm oatmeal and hot water for coco so at least we were able to warm ourselves from the inside out this morning. The day started out well. Just at the crack of dawn (8:30am) Niklas uncaged the dogs and let them run around their penned in area near our tent and just be dogs for about an hour. They romped and rolled in the snow, they squabbled and chased each other around, they came over to us for some lovin’, they peed on everything they could lift their leg on… it was quite fun to watch 29 dogs having a good time. Then about ten o’clock some other tourists showed up and we got the low-down on how to hook the dogs up to their harnesses, how to brake the dogs and what to do if the sled rolls over. Niklas drove the lead team of nine dogs because he had two adults on his sled. The other three sleds had only five dogs pulling them because we each just had one person down in the sled (zipped up nice and cozy warm with reindeer hides to sit on) and one person driving the dogs. A Norwegian couple was in the second sled, Kory and Kaleb were in third place and I got to ride in the last sled while another Norwegian guy drove our team. I was a little nervous at first after the safety lesson of all the things to do if something goes wrong, but once we got going, it was a comfortable pace and all my fears dissolved.

The dogs so love to pull the sleds that they began barking and howling at the first sight of the sleds being prepared. There is a huge snow anchor that keeps them still until it’s time to go, as their only instinct is to go full speed ahead, all the time, and to try to get in front of the pack of dogs in the lead. (It was a little scary to think about losing the driver, as the dogs would just go all day with no way to stop them.) It’s hard to believe those skinny dogs with a not very thick coat, love the snow like they do and can handle the extreme cold they live in, but it was easy to see how much fun they have when they are out in it. Even while we were on the tour, they would sink their head in a pile of fresh snow just so they could shake it off themselves, or they would take a bite to get a drink of water as they were running full speed ahead. Several of them had to poop while they were running, and a few made the whole team stop for them but most of them just kept right on running, like horses do. It was pretty funny.

The weather today was absolutely perfect and the scenery where we were was breathtaking. There is no way words could describe how we all felt as we were gliding along the frozen lake with the sunshine hitting the mountaintops around us, the dogs not making a peep and just the sound of the runners under us sliding on the frozen ice. It was magical. And it seemed, as I was watching from the back, that I was in a National Geographic special on Alaska because I had seen that scene many times before, but only on TV. I had the dogs right in front of me, the other sleds in the distance ahead of me and just this drop dead gorgeous winterscape all around me. I took as many photos and video shots as I could but I also wanted to enjoy the moment and just take it all in. The funniest part was when Niklas took us on a fairly short loop trail so we could see each other coming from the other direction as each team looped back– and it was there I was hoping to get photos of the front of Kory and Kaleb as they looped around, but the last two teams of dogs (mine and Kory and Kaleb’s) saw this as an opportunity to become the lead pack so they made a cut right through the middle of the loop and tried to get ahead of Niklas and his team as they turned the corner. Not only did they get off the trail and dive into a lot of fresh snow powder, but they got their ropes all tangled up in the process. It was quite the effort to get them untangled and heading down the path again, but it gave us all a good laugh just the same.

It really was something to have that experience today. Kaleb has decided everyone needs to do that sometime in their life and Kory and I thanked Kaleb over and over because if it weren’t for him, we certainly wouldn’t have made the effort to come here and do this. So it was a day to remember, for as long as we all shall live.

And, not wanting to put any damper on the day, I insisted we go into town and see if there was any hotel rooms available for the night, as I just couldn’t stand the thought of one more night in that tent (see photo), especially since tonight was supposed to be colder than last night! Both Kory and Kaleb protested, but I insisted that we’d all be happier tomorrow (since we have such a long drive home), if we get a good night’s sleep. I won because I said I’d only check one hotel and if they had a room and it was less than $300 a night (a bargain here), we’d stay. They agreed, thinking that would be impossible, but we have a God who can do the impossible and we found a room for $295! Hallelujah! We went out for a nice warm dinner, we all had a good hot shower, and now we are ready to sleep in a clean, warm bed. God is good.

Going To The Dogs

What a day. In terms of daylight - it was short. In terms of driving distance - it was long. In terms of sleep -it was a nightmare. But I’m not complaining as we made it safe and sound to our destination and ready for a new day. (I’m actually writing this the next morning.)

We were apparently up too late Friday night cleaning and packing because we slept right through the alarm, or it just didn’t go off (not sure which since it was a new alarm clock.) Kaleb finally woke us up at 8:23am, and our intentions were to be up at 6:30 and out the door by eight -so much for making use of the little daylight that’s available this time of year. We had several ferries to catch and a long drive ahead so we flew around the house gathering things and getting dressed. The first ferry we needed to take runs every half hour and we just pulled up as they closed access to get on so we had to waste a half hour of daylight sitting at the dock. At least Kory got to eat breakfast without having to drive at the same time.

We had beautiful weather the entire drive, but it turned out to take a little longer than we expected as going over some of the mountain passes the driving was very slow. On good roads, the highest speed we can go is 70 kilometers an hour (not quite 45mph) but in many places we could only go about 25 or 30 mph safely. It was OK with me when it was light out because I was able to take dozens of absolutely gorgeous landscape photos out the window (see photo!), but once the darkness settled in about 4pm, it wasn’t quite so pleasant. I was very thankful for all the tunnels we went through in the mountains because then the roads were dry and bare and when we came out of them, it was like entering a different country. Most of them were 6-7 kilometers long and the scenery and weather and road conditions were constantly changing so it was like getting a surprise at the end of each one as we never knew what to expect.

Kaleb entertained himself in the backseat with his Nintendo and a DVD player so we didn’t hear a peep out of him the entire day. Kory did all the driving and I insisted we stop around 5:30 to eat some dinner and give him a break, so we didn’t get to our final destination until nearly 8pm.

Beitostølen is truly a winter wonderland – surrounded by mountains and ski resorts, it’s shaped like a huge bowl with a large lake at the bottom, which is always frozen over in the winter. When we arrived, all we saw was snow piled high on everything around us, that wonderful fluffy dry powdery snow that sparkled in the headlights and made it seem like there were diamonds lying by the roadside everywhere we went. The stars were as bright as I’ve ever seen and the air was beyond crisp.

Our accommodations last night were primitive and genuine. We slept in a Sami tent called a Lawo (pronounced Lah-vo) right next to the dog kennel (Kaleb’s favorite part). It’s just a large tee-pee if you ask me, with a woodstove in the center that gives one the sense it might actually be warm inside, but nothing could be further from the truth. It hit about 16 below zero last night where we were (about zero degrees Fahrenheit). Chunks of ice were hanging off the inside of our tent. There was a blazing fire in the furnace all night, as Kory set his cell phone alarm to go off every 75 minutes so he was sure to keep the home fires burning, but it seemed to me it was all in vain. No heat from that stove made it more than about three inches away from it, so unless we were practically touching it, there seemed to be no warming effect. I had a cup of water about 5 inches from it and it froze in less than an hour. My face formed ice crystals in the night as I was breathing in and out. It was as cold as I’ve ever experienced cold. Before we decided to go to bed, we all bundled up in our sleeping bags and tried to watch a movie I downloaded on my computer, but the volume wasn’t loud enough for Kory to hear so we just bagged it and went to bed early. (Kory claims his hearing is just fine and it’s only the particular pitch that my voice makes that he is unable to hear, but clearly he was proven wrong last night as Kaleb and I both could hear the sound track just fine.) So we slept on cots inside Norwegian military issued mummy bags with two reindeer hides under, one over and our own wool blankets and sleeping bags on top of that. We were in full wool long underwear and clothes, including wool sweaters and hats… and we were STILL cold! About 2am, when we were all still wide awake because we were so cold (we went to bed at 9pm) Kaleb started crying that he just wanted to go home. Kory let him crawl into his mummy bag to get warm and he finally fell asleep. I’m sure I didn’t sleep before 3am and the only time I really felt warm was when I was blessed with a hot flash. I will remind Kaleb of this night should he ever question if there were ever any sacrifices I made for him. And tonight it’s supposed to be colder, and we have booked this tent for two nights. I am the best Mama in the whole world.

Merry 2nd Day of Christmas

A few weeks ago, cousin Odd came over for dinner. He told us that Turid wanted to invite us over to their house for dinner on Christmas Day, and Turid wanted to come to our house for dinner the day after – and she wanted turkey. So that’s how it was today. I made a turkey, and Odd and Turid and Hege came over to eat it. I also invited my pal Vestina, from school, and her boyfriend Minde (both are from Lithuania – see photo). We all had a great time and a lot of laughs and now Kory is cleaning up the mess. Minde is a wanna-be professional photographer, and he brought all his photo equipment along so he could take photos. He said he needs more practice but he is already very good and he got some great shots – especially of Odd. It was fun to pose for the camera, even though we weren’t dressed for such a thing. It felt like the meal was going to end up in a magazine article or something, as we were sitting around drinking wine, then coffee, talking, laughing and trying to look “natural.” What fun. I can’t wait to get copies of those photos.

Everything in Norway is closed on the 2nd day of Christmas – it’s considered a holiday right along with Christmas Day. It works well to have so many days of Christmas because families have loved ones in more than one household, and this way, they can bounce back and forth eating and visiting with no pressure to go back to work. Family and food is what Christmas is all about here. So we were happy to host tonight’s event and the food even tasted pretty good, if I do say so myself. But it was way more American than Norwegian (although I did make mashed rutabagas – a Norsk favorite this time of year.)

We spent all morning packing food and winter wear for our big trip tomorrow. We need to leave early to catch the ferry and get to our final destination before it gets too dark. It will be at least a seven hour drive and we are dealing with just a few hours of daylight now so we need to use the twilight hours as well. Norwegian roads are hard enough to drive on when it’s daylight, but given darkness and slush or ice, they are just downright suicidal. So our focus was torn today between getting dinner on the table and getting everything ready for this insane trip we are taking so Kaleb can experience a dog sled ride. At least there are no storms forecast for this weekend so all the roads will be open and we should have sunny days and minus ten degrees for a high once we get there. At night we’ll have minus 16 degrees celcius (3 degrees Fahrenheit) and I just pray the reindeer hides we will be sleeping under in the tent, will keep us plenty warm. (And I hope somewhere in that town I can get internet access so I can post my blog!)

I realize now we didn’t even get out of the house once today, as we were so busy. It was a beautiful day too and we watched a parade of families taking leisurely walks down our street, some with dogs, some not. A friend from church stopped by about 9:30 tonight as he was out walking his dog (“lufte hunden” as they say – which literally translates means, “airing out the dog.”) He is also Kaleb’s religion teacher at school and one of his afterschool program leaders. He’s getting ready to move to Australia in a few weeks to go to Hillsong Bible School so he wanted to stop by and take a picture of us to take with him. It’s so funny here in Norway that people drop in or call up until about 11pm, then after that it’s considered too late. Back home I would never call anyone after 9pm, thinking THAT was too late – but they are on a different time schedule here. I think it could come from the fact that no one has a very long commute to work, and no one starts work before 7am so everyone is pretty much on the same schedule.

Kaleb spent the day with Tobias and Sabina – bouncing back and forth between all the houses. Tobias’ parents stopped by when they were out for a walk around the neighborhood and we asked if Tobias could stay for dinner. He discovered at Thanksgiving that he really likes turkey and it’s not a common food served here. His mother said she was going to have to start giving us his “barnetryg” because he eats here so often. (That’s the “child support” money the government pays for every child to help with expenses in raising them.) I thought that was pretty funny. But we love having him here – he’s such a good influence on Kaleb as he is very calm and tolerant and gently corrects Kaleb when he’s being obnoxious. How those two are such good friends is beyond me – they are nothing alike and they don’t really have many common interests, but somehow it works - and for that – I’m thankful. (I guess when I think about it - they are a little like Kory and I, but I won't say which one of us is the obnoxious one.)

Hallelujah! Jesus is Born!

The celebration continues. We had our genuine American Christmas morning today when we all woke up at 10:30 (Kory and I were up until 2:30 last night so we were happy to sleep in.) Kaleb was chomping at the bit to open the presents under the tree and he wasn’t the least bit disappointed. We got him a few books and science kits, a few games and movies, but the best gift of all was a new laptop. I can’t believe it myself, but I have had it in the closet for months now as it was a FREE gift to us when we signed up for internet service here. The internet provider had a special promotion for first time subscribers, and since it was “back to school” time they offered this amazing laptop, complete with Norwegian keyboard, for FREE. I could hardly contain myself as Kaleb is so often wanting to use my computer to go to his favorite game websites, but he’s hard pressed to get me off mine. So now, we will have dueling computers and poor Kory will just have to sit and listen to the silence. Kaleb said more than once today that this was the most incredible month of his life, since he got a Nintendo for his birthday and a computer for Christmas, a dog to dog-sit and on Saturday we’re going on a dog sled ride. It just doesn’t get any better. So we have one very happy little boy and that was good enough for both of us. Kory and I gave to charities for our gifts to each other, but he also framed one of his drawings for me so I could hang it on the wall and I gave him a picture book of the buildings in downtown Aalesund so he could draw more pictures of them. At least we were on the same page. We had a late breakfast then Sabina came over for a while and Kaleb showed her all his stuff. He so wanted Tobias to come over too but he had to wait until later in the day for that to happen.

It was nearly a blue sky day today and we were all sad that our hometown got more snow overnight and had a genuine White Christmas, and we didn’t. We spent time looking at all the photos our friends have posted on Facebook and oohing and aahing over the snow forts and igloos and Winter Wonderland shots. It’s a good thing we love it here so much or we might just be wishing we were back home again.

Around here they have “Christmas” on Christmas Eve; the FIRST day of Christmas on the 25th and the Second day of Christmas, will be tomorrow. These three days of Christmas all come with their own traditions, so when in Norway, do as the Norwegians do. Often, on the First day of Christmas, people eat leftovers from the big dinner the night before and “slappe av” (relax). Everyone I talked to thinks everything tastes better the second day. So this afternoon we headed over to Odd and Turids for another grand eating extravaganza. All of Odd and Turid’s grown children were there, as well as both of their mother’s and us, so they had a house full. Odd was so proud of the free tree he got from some guy’s farm this year (he got permission), that I had to take a photo of him standing next to it (see photo). I told him it was a genuine “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree and within minutes one kid had Googled it and another had a photo of it on their cell phone, as they all wanted to know what I was talking about. I told him it had a lot of character. When they saw the picture of Charlie Brown’s tree, then they knew. Apparently, Odd is more like Kory than I realized, as he put up that tree about ten minutes before we got there, just to get a reaction out of us. He let me go on for quite some time before he revealed that it really hadn’t been their Christmas tree – just a joke. Ha ha, he got me good. (The real tree was tossed over the balcony to get rid of the evidence.)

After dinner we had the big contest that Kory set up many months ago. He told both Kaleb and I that whoever spoke the best Norwegian by Christmas would get a thousand kroner (about $150-$200 depending on the exchange rate). I knew I’d win, but he took all the words for the test out of Kaleb’s homework books, not mine, so I didn’t know many of them. I knew the test would be rigged in one way or another and I am competitive enough that it ticked me off. Kory didn’t have the scoring system figured out too well and here we were with about ten judges in front of us and none of them understood fully what the “deal” was. We had to translate words from Norwegian to English, we had to read text to see how our pronunciation was and then we had to answer a question about what we do on a normal day. When Kory gave me the words to translate, he gave me no reference for them so I failed that section miserably. But when he gave the words to Kaleb, he gave them to him in a sentence, so whether Kaleb knew the word or not, it was very easy to just guess what it was from the context. That ticked me off but good as I am all about playing fair. But, after all the judges tallied all their points (we had points taken off if we mispronounced words when we were reading, so this is where I gained some momentum), I WON! It was pretty close, or so said the judges, but I was clearly the winner and gladly accepted my thousand kroner prize. Then Kory gave Kaleb an envelope for the second place prize and he too got a thousand kroner. That is SO Norwegian like – to make everyone the winner. I’ve got just enough “American” in me to think that wasn’t a good idea, but Kaleb sure enjoyed it, even though he said he doesn’t know what to do with the money since he has everything he wants. That’s my boy! I’m going to spend my money on a massage. The stress of it all was just too much.

GOD JUL!

Vi hadde en kjempe fin dag i dag…. I mean, we had a really great day today. We slept too long and then got quite busy with the last minute details as there were packages to wrap and clothes to iron. It also dawned on me that I hadn’t sent out any cards to the Norwegian cousins, so I whipped some up on the computer, printed them out, addressed them and ran to the post office just before they closed. Nothing like a little last minute stress to make the holiday feel right. I’m so off my mark this year. I need my own traditions to keep me on task. Oi! (The new way Norwegians say “uff da.”)

The Norwegian Christmas Eve is well scripted and I dare say there are not many variations on the theme. In this part of Norway anyway, I’d bet that the morning of Christmas Eve every house is as clean as it will be the entire year. All the finest clothes one has will be neatly pressed and ready for wear as everyone dresses to the hilt. Men wear suits and ties, women wear their finest, fanciest dresses, little girls wear the cutest little frilly things and many boys even have on a suit and tie or at least a vest and dress shirt. This day is the height of formality and most adults wear black. It would be a serious sign of disrespect to be in anything but your finest threads today.

Every church has a Christmas service, sometime between one and three in the afternoon. All the stores are closed by one o’clock so as not to compete with church attendance. Before we went to the three o’clock service at Filadelfia Church, we stopped by for a visit with Tante Ruth. She could not be convinced to come join any of the festivities today as she just wanted to be alone. She had a stash of gifts from all the nieces and nephews displayed in the living room, waiting to be opened sometime this evening after she had eaten the traditional Christmas Eve meal. She gave me a quick cooking lesson on how to make the food, since she had it all prepared and sitting in pans on the stove. All that was required was the twist of a knob and dinner would soon be ready. In one pan were peeled potatoes, carrots and rutabagas, which would be boiled, drained and then mashed all together. In another pan sat pieces of dried lamb ribs that had been rehydrated yesterday (soaked in water for two days). They were sitting in a steamer, as no water should touch them when they cook. Some of the water from that lamb steaming can be added to the potato mixture to give it more flavor, and she licked her lips when she was telling me that hot tip. In another pan sat some pieces of sausage that needed to be boiled, and a foil package that contained boiled cabbage cooked with sugar and caraway seeds (a little like sauerkraut). There wasn’t a green thing in the meal. All she needed to do was start the burners and she’d have herself the finest Christmas meal there is to be had in Sunnmøre. I’m positive that every person in this entire region ate that meal tonight. I guess this is some kind of bonding moment for the Norsk population around here – that they all eat the same food about the same time on Christmas Eve. (Dinner is served promptly after the church service finishes, which always leaves at least one person per household home to heat things up.)

After our cozy little visit with Tante Ruth (where she gave us all exceedingly long hugs and thank yous for all we have done for her), we went to church for an hour, then off to cousin Axel and Kari’s house just down the street from where we live. And sure enough, Kari served exactly what Aunt Ruth was having for dinner, except Kari also served a special type of pork that is also common to have with the lamb if there is a large gathering for dinner. Which reminds me of something funny they say here: Kari had 14 for dinner (her and Axel and 12 guests). In English we would use the words “guests” or “people” to talk about how many are coming for dinner. They have those words here too, (gjester, mennesker), but when talking about how many they are having over for dinner, they say 14 “stykker,” which means “pieces.” The word stykker is the word used for puzzle pieces, or pieces of wood, or pieces of anything, so I find it most amusing that they use that word when referring to how many people they are feeding. I can only imagine it came from counting how many pieces of meat they needed for the meal, or something like that, but it’s an old expression and everyone uses it without even giving it any thought, but it cracks me up every time I hear it. (“I have 14 pieces coming for dinner.”)

So we ate the traditional meal (I passed on the “little lamb” again but the pork was great). Immediately afterwards we were served rice pudding. In the bowl of pudding was an almond and whoever got the almond in their bowl, got a special prize (a marzipan candy pig). That tradition also goes way back. So after the table was cleared, the gifts started flowing. I can’t get over the fact they open every single gift on Christmas Eve. There is a bit of a mad dash in the daytime to drop off all the gifts to everyone’s house before dinnertime and NO ONE opens ANY gifts from ANYONE before dinner. It’s so weird they don’t open the gift in front of the person who gave it to them, like we do in America. If friends exchange gifts they often open them then and there, but that’s NOT how they do it here. You must hold all your gifts and open them only on Christmas Eve after dinner. And everyone just gives ONE gift to each person – even parents to children – they just give ONE gift on Christmas Eve. I’m sure the Christmas police will show up at our house tomorrow morning as we held back the bulk of our gifts for our traditional American Christmas morning. (At last count I think Kaleb had ten gifts under the tree, which is only excusable because we ARE American, I’m sure, as they expect we are full of excessive indulgences.) So tonight, everyone watched as each gift was opened and after about two hours, we took a break for coffee and dessert (cakes, cookies, fruit and vanilla sauce and lots of candy), then went back to it. At some point, Jule Nisse came knocking on the door with a bag of goodies for everyone (another standard Norsk tradition). Kaleb gave me the evil eye as he is still wanting to believe in Santa, but there was no doubt this one was a fake since his pillow was spilling out of his robe and the mask that all Norwegians Santas wear was far from believable (see photo). I had no answers for his thousand questions. We went back to opening gifts and by 11:00 we were done. I’m sure the celebration will go until the wee hours of the morning, but when Kaleb started to fall asleep on the couch by 11:45, we had to leave since he’s getting too big to carry.

The newspaper this week asked a bunch of people what their favorite part of Christmas was and almost everyone said “the food.” But I’m sure if they thought about that a bit more they’d agree with a quote from W.S. Gilbert that says, “It’s not so much what’s on the table that matters, as what’s on the chairs.” As being with such a wonderful family makes any day a great day. God Jul til alle….

Finally, A TREE!

It never gets old to say that “God works in mysterious ways.” One of Kory’s bosses, Jonathan, came over this morning to drop off a little Christmas bonus. To say his bosses are “nice” is an understatement. Kory has tremendous respect for them and thinks they are both fantastic young men with a heart for God and he very much likes working for them and getting to know them. Well, Kory told Jonathan all about how God closed the door on us buying The Sinking Houses but how it’s just killing him because he knows it’s a gold mine for someone, just not us. And only then did Jonathan tell Kory that both he and his partner, Espen, really wanted to put in a bid to buy the houses as well, but they didn’t want to keep Kory from getting them because they knew how excited he was about them. What a surprise it was to hear that one. So Kory showed him all the numbers we ran on the costs and told him all we found out in the process of investigating it and now it seems, they will be buying them for the price we bid, instead of us! What a miracle that is for all of us. And the neighborhood will still be thrilled that the Kommune isn’t going to buy them. (We were kind of sweating that one because we knew we were letting people down.) So Kory will be both working for, and renting from Jonathan and Espen. It harkens back to the days of the “company store” but as long as they don’t buy out the local grocer, we should be OK. This whole thing couldn’t have a happier ending. Hallelujah!

And today we said goodbye to George, the loveable pup we got “for Christmas.” It was good to be with a dog again but I won’t miss the dog hair or early morning walks. Kaleb was so funny when figuring out how much to charge for his services. The first time he dog sat back home he told the woman how much it was and then he said, “But really, I should be paying you,” because he loves to be with dogs so much. At home it’s about twenty bucks a day for a kennel, so Kaleb charges a dollar a day to ensure he gets a lot of business (and he does – sometimes we have up to four dogs at a time.) Well, with today’s exchange rate he would charge seven kroner a day, if he were to stick to the ole’ dollar a day rate, but you most certainly CANNOT buy anything for seven kroner here in Norway so Kaleb had some tough calculations to figure out about what a dollar equivalent was in purchasing power, not just conversion rate. He finally came up with 15-20 kroner a day as his dog-sitting fee and when he told George’s owner they owed him 75 kroner, he was more than a little shocked when they gave him 250 kroner instead. (Typical kennel rates here in Norway are 200 kroner a day.) So Kaleb was floating only temporarily until he remembered he has to put it all in savings because it was really Kory and I that did the work – he just slept with the dog. But as a result of Kaleb’s latest dog-sitting experience, he did come up with some pretty funny inventions, which he wrote about today in the upcoming edition of The Weakly Puppy. We worked on that this morning so it would be a “wrap” before the holidays kick in as it gets published on Friday. Kaleb told me that he really feels he “doesn’t have time” anymore to continue doing the publication but he just can’t bring himself to stopping it because so many people enjoy getting it and he doesn’t want to let them down. He says he will NEVER stop writing it. It will soon be two years since he started it and it still makes me laugh out loud. Funny boy.

Well this afternoon we had a little cabin fever so we set out for the mall. Kaleb really wanted a book that Tobias told him was available in English at a store at the mall, so he was chomping at the bit to buy it with his birthday money. (I’m sure glad I didn’t get it for him already for a Christmas gift.) We came home, made tacos for dinner, heated up some glogg and started decorating the tree! (Kory went and “got” one last night – somewhere.) Our tradition back home always takes an entire day to get the tree as we drive up to the Mt. Baker National Forest and get our $10 permit and cut down a fresh one. But they don’t really allow that kind of thing here, so one just magically showed up at our house and I’m not asking any questions. (Trees cost about a hundred bucks and I don’t want to know the details around this one.) We shipped over some favorite tree decorations and we bought some here and we now have the finest looking tree in the neighborhood. Well, I guess that’s because it’s the ONLY tree in the neighborhood at this point – no one puts them up until tomorrow – but I couldn’t wait one more day. (I hope the Christmas police don’t come arrest me or something as the number of offenses I’ve committed against these precious Norwegian traditions are mounting.) We did buy the lights that look like candles, and I like them a lot. When Kory was a kid they lit real candles on the tree and danced around it. The cords attached to our lights prohibit any kind of dancing, so we just sat in front of it and drank more glogg. Then we popped popcorn and watched another Christmas movie (Home Alone 2) I downloaded from some European internet site that is probably illegal and will now go on my “naughty” list for the year. I’m anticipating a lump of coal anyway because I couldn’t think of anything to buy myself for Christmas.

A Closed Door

God leads through opening and closing doors, and today he closed a big one. At this point, unless something huge changes, we are NOT buying The Sinking Houses. I’m so relieved. Even Kory admits it would have been a headache, but it does have the potential to be a huge money maker. My feeling is we don’t need any more money since we already have enough to get by and there’s no reason at this stage of our lives to be in pursuit of the almighty buck. We will just sit back and see what happens now. Whoever buys them will certainly want renters so even if we have to start paying rent, it’s no problem. The fact we’ve lived this long for free is still a miracle in my book. I was worried if Ålesund Kommune buys them for low income housing they would kick us out, but the cousins assure us that they have an obligation to let us continue to live here until the school year is out because we have a child going to school. So, that worry is over. Hallelujah.

I realized part of my depression yesterday is that I don’t have enough to do. I like to be busy and there really isn’t much going on right now that takes up my time. We are invited out for so many meals this week for all the different days of Christmas, I don’t even have to meal plan or make a grocery list. The house takes one hour to clean from top to bottom as it’s so small, and all my Christmas cards went out electronically this year so I don’t even have a stamp to lick. I’m so used to running myself ragged that I can’t even enjoy a little peace and quiet. But now I am. Kory is over visiting Aunt Ruth, Kaleb is over playing with Tobias and I’m at home with the dog.

Earlier today Kory and Kaleb took George (the dog) for a two hour walk and I made banana bread and did laundry. (I really needed to do laundry yesterday but I couldn’t because it’s against the law to do it on a Sunday - how funny is that?) George is a sweet pup with a strong desire to be a lap dog (see photo). I am such a “dog” person I forgot how much I love to nuzzle up to that soft spot behind every dog’s ear and whisper sweet nothings to them. But I think Kaleb sealed his fate today in never getting a dog when he wouldn’t scoop the poop while they were out for a walk. Kory ended up picking it up with a plastic bag and then Kaleb wouldn’t even carry the bag to the nearest garbage can! Kory wasn’t too happy with him since Kaleb is the one making money on this dog sitting deal, but we’ve already warned him it’s all going into savings and he won’t touch a single kroner. Then he argued and said he should get at least one kroner because of the one time he did walk him (but he got loose). That kid can negotiate me into a frazzle.

Kaleb was disappointed in me today that I didn’t mention in my blog yesterday something he thought was very funny. I was wearing headphones at Philadelphia Church so I could hear the sermon translated to English. I do OK without them but it always seems I miss some key point, so it’s better safe than sorry for me. Anyway, the translator wasn’t one of the better ones I’ve heard and when she said, “They took the baby Jesus and laid him in a crab,” I thought Kaleb was going to bust a gut. He thought that was the funniest thing because she obviously was supposed to say “laid him in a crib.” Ha ha. He must have laughed for 30 minutes when I told him about it. It is funny sometimes though to listen to people translate. Probably not as funny as listening to me talk Norwegian, however, and who knows how many laughs have been at my expense behind my back. (Kory just says the way I talk is “cute” but that’s because he’s being polite and he wants to stay married to me.)

Our friends the Merediths “Skyped” us today and we must have talked an hour via the computer. It was just like they stopped in for a visit since their faces were in our living room and we chatted on about all kinds of things. (It’s good to have friends to grow old with so we have SOMEONE to talk to about our medical history.) If I could have reached into my computer screen and pulled them through it like some sci-fi movie, I would have. It kills me to not be sharing this beautiful place with people I love!

Tomorrow the dog leaves and the tree goes up! Hallelujah!

The Shortest Day of the Year

I haven’t really had a bad day since landing in Norway, but today came close. I didn’t sleep well last night with all the thoughts running through my head on the “what ifs” if we buy the houses, and also if we don’t. I also feel such a burden for so many I love back home that are going through incredibly hard times right now, and if I didn’t have faith, I’d think the situations were all hopeless. One thought after another just starting piling up and next thing I know, I’m in tears having my own little pity party. I don’t like to feel this way, so I tried to focus on the positive, but for some reason, for the bulk of today anyway, that was impossible.

And to make matters worse, Kaleb has become incredibly disrespectful and disobedient ever since we gave him the Nintendo for his birthday. Whenever we ask him to do something, he takes at least 10 minutes before he responds as he insists he must “save” the game first, which often requires playing it just a little bit more. When we need to talk to him about something and ask him to put it on pause, he sits like a drug addict waiting for his next hit, pestering us as to just how many more minutes it will be before he can get back to his game. He’s completely glued to that thing and today we told him he could play it for only one hour a day from now on and never on Sundays. We tried for a week to get him to self-regulate and we gave him several warnings that he needs to be more respectful to us while he’s playing it, but he didn’t rise to the challenge. So today was the day to set him free from his addiction, and just like any “withdrawl,” it wasn’t pretty. This didn’t help my own situation one little bit and only led me into a deeper depression thinking I’ll have a son who hates me for life. Some days this parenting thing really bites.

We went to Agape Church this morning and put the word out that we are looking for possible renters if we buy the houses. I’m sure, given a few week’s time span, we could fill these houses up, but we had to set criteria that would classify as a miracle, otherwise it can’t be accredited to God’s leading. So, at this point, we don’t have a single person who would rent at the price we set, and the deadline is tomorrow morning (well, technically, it’s “morning” until noon). Only God can make this happen and if He doesn’t, I’ll be so relieved. Kory goes back and forth on it, so we really have no idea how this will play out.

I began a downward spiral in my thoughts today. This Christmas season just doesn’t feel right because all the traditions here are different and we don’t even have the tree up, which has bummed me out more than it should. I always look forward to Christmas carols during the Sundays in December, and we’ve yet to sing one at church. I was feeling like an outsider and not fitting in anywhere and also like I am letting God down by not being used more in some type of ministry. I just sat in church this morning crying and telling God he really needs to help me out of this pit because this isn’t anyplace I want to linger.

After church we came home and while Kaleb was reading a book and Kory was going around talking to neighbors, I laid in bed and felt sorry for myself. That might have been a first, but it was also the first time I experienced a day with less than three hours of daylight. But today is the day for turning corners, as tomorrow will be lighter longer than today and tomorrow is Monday, my favorite day of the week.

Tonight we went to Philadelphia Church’s special Christmas service and God was surely there. Someone we know invited us over for dinner this week, so then my pity-party feelings of not being included suddenly disappeared. During the service, we sang two Christmas songs I know – of course the words were in Norwegian but the melody was the old familiar tunes and that cheered me up immensely. Then after the service, a woman on staff asked if after the first of the year, I would be willing to lead a Bible study/home fellowship group for those who attend the church that only speak English. Hot dog! That was the ticket. God certainly heard my cry today and took care of all that ailed me in short order. Hallelujah! And I even noticed, by day’s end, that Kaleb was easier to be around. Sometimes I embarrass myself with how I behave and the things I think about. And I’m always in awe of how much God loves me and how meticulously he answers my prayers and hears my heart’s desires. Now if we can just get a Christmas tree up, life would be grand.

Questions, Lots of Questions

Today we spent the day trying to figure out the details around buying The Sinking Houses. We must have asked a thousand questions in our effort to understand how Norwegian businesses run, taxes get paid and just what the costs will be to own these houses. At this point, we are completely on the line and don’t know one way or another how this will play out but we are both at peace with whatever happens.

We found out that small businesses use accountants and auditors that work for the bank. These bank employees keep the books and file the taxes and are just there, available for the business customer's use. That’s different. We also found out that it’s not very expensive or time consuming to set up something similar to a limited partnership business, but they do require 100,000 kroner deposit with the bank (about $15,000) that is held as security for some time period until after the business folds to be sure that all the final bills get paid. (But then the money is refundable.) And owning a small business is a much better way to go as the profits are never taxed until they are withdrawn for personal use. So in that regard, Norwegian tax laws would work well for us. Norway taxes individual earnings upwards of 50%, so it’s much better to have rental income run through a business than taken personally, especially since we’d need to build up a pile of cash for any major work that may be required in the future. The only drawback to having the business is that the interest rate on the mortgage is going to be much higher (and that's a BIG drawback).

We checked one of our three requirements off the list today and tomorrow we’ll see about the other two. The one criteria that is already met is the caretaker job. We have a few relatives that can fix anything, like Kory, and both of them said they would be available for any handy-man work that’s required if we aren’t here to do it. One even said he’d be the overall caretaker as he lives very close to us and has a vested interest in who moves into these houses. Tobias (who is soon 13) said he’d be happy to keep the grass cut in the summer months, so that problem is solved.

We drove around today getting prices on things and Kory figured out the costs to build porches and to bring in loads of gravel and put stove tops in a few units and repair some sewer lines to make these places livable. It seems right now, those costs will be under ten grand, but we still have a few expenses we don’t know about so that’s a partial open door. And as for potential renters, we called two people today we knew were interested and one said it was too far out of the city and the other said it was too much money to pay, so that door partially closed. We have two more potential renters we will talk to tomorrow but we need four lined up, or that will be the door slamming firmly shut and the whole deal with be a no-go. What a ride.

Kaleb spent most of the day with Tobias, either at his house while we were running around town, or here at home. He also took the daring step of walking George by himself, the dog we are dog sitting. On the first walk, they barely got out the door when George pulled so hard on the leash Kaleb got pulled through the middle of a huge mud puddle, slipped and landed smack dab in it. Then on the second attempt George got wrapped around some bushes and managed to pull out of his collar so that gave Kaleb a terrible fright. Fortunately it all happened in front of our house and Kory saw the dog running down the street with Kaleb in hot pursuit so we came to the rescue. Kaleb is beginning to understand the full responsibility in owning a dog and he’s not liking it so much. Hallelujah! His interest in dogs seems to be taming just a bit so I’m hoping by the time we get home he will not be asking for a dog of his own. But then, when we get home, there aren’t kids to play with like there is here, so then the dogs take on a greater significance. Uff da.

I have been glued to the internet reading up on all the stories and watching video clips and live news feeds of the big snow storms hitting the Pacific Northwest this week. I can’t believe we are here when record snow and cold hit there! We’ve certainly had our share of cold and below zero temperatures, but it’s not the same because here it’s normal. So many times at home we’ve waited for those winter days when we would be snowed in, and now they’ve come and we missed them. I’m a little sad about that, especially if Washington finally gets a White Christmas! We had Odd and Turid and Hege here for dinner tonight and they assured us we’d have a wet, windy Christmas, as they always do, with a chance of slush, just to make it interesting. I think I’ll just listen to Elvis and have a blue, blue, blue Christmas.