Building Walls

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




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



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



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



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

A Day He Won't Soon Forget

Stakkars Kaleb (Poor Kaleb!) He was invited to attend a day of school with Sabina today. We was to meet Sabina on the #618 bus at the main bus terminal, right here next to our condo, at 7:30 this morning. He woke up at six o’clock, he was so excited. He sat around and waited to leave until about twelve past seven. He didn’t even eat breakfast because Sabina told him they have food at school. So off he goes down the sidewalk to catch the bus, as grown up as ever. I waited out on the balcony until the 7:30 bus passed by, knowing he was going to have a great day.




Kory and I were occupied all morning – he started building the wall for Kaleb’s room, and I sat and read more farm history books to find out all I could about the Norwegian ancestors of my friend Stuart. It was a gorgeous day outside, but I couldn’t tear myself away from the amazing progress I was making finding the names of all his dead relatives. I was sitting at my computer at 10:45 when Kaleb walked in the door. Something was up, as he wasn’t supposed to be home until after 2:30. He started crying right away, as he told us that he never did find Sabina. He’d gotten on the #618 bus heading into “Sentrum” (the center of town), but she wasn’t on the bus. I had told him her school meets in the same building that my school was at, and that the bus stops right in front of that building. What I forgot was that the first three months of my school, we were at another building down by the harbor, and THAT is where Kaleb thought he was going. He never saw the stop where he was to get off, so he stayed on the bus a few more stops, then got off and walked around the center of town, looking for that school, which he never found.



He thought he was a lost a time or two, but then he’d see someplace he recognized. When he found the library, he got his bearings back, but that took over an hour of wandering around, being quite frustrated and a little bit frightened. He gave up the idea of going to school and just wanted to find a bus stop so he could get back home again. I guess this is why he needs his own cell phone.



Once he found the library, he knew the bus stopped right in front of it, but it stops there before going out of town the wrong direction. The bus heading in the right direction was across the street but it was blocked off by fencing and he didn’t know about the underground tunnel he needed to take to cross the street. He got on the #618 bus, knowing he was heading the wrong way, but he knew eventually it would have to turn around and go back toward Moa (where we live) because all of Aalesund is just a cluster of little islands, so he took one heck of a long bus ride to get back home again. All in all he was gone for three and a half hours. I couldn’t have been more distraught over the whole thing. He recovered from the experience quicker than I did, but I was pretty proud he found his way back home safe and sound.



Kaleb was a little tense when he got home so he decided to relax a little in the library next door, reading books. It was so nice outside, I hated that he was indoors, so after three hours he finally checked out a huge book and read it at home, sitting in the sunshine. He didn’t want to be gone from the house too much, nor play with any other kids, even though Sabina invited him over tonight. She and her mother, Tone, stopped by after school to find out what happened to him. As it turned out, none of us realized there was a bus that came at 7:15am and it was running a few minutes late and Kaleb even had to flag it down when he got to the bus stop as it was leaving just as he arrived. We thought there were only busses on the hour and half hour, but for the morning rush, they throw in that extra run, and that was the bus Kaleb got on by mistake because he was so early. Stakkars, Kaleb! He’s going to give it a try again tomorrow, but I’m walking out to the bus terminal with him this time, even though I’m confident he now knows his way around town, and how the bus route goes. He’ll never forget that experience, I’m sure.



A few of my friends from our old home fellowship group at Agape Church came over for lunch today so I had a wonderful time visiting with them all the while Kory was busy cutting wood for the bedroom wall.

Tante Kari also came up this afternoon for a visit. She is just back from a long weekend in Oslo visiting her granddaughter and family. Cousin Odd also stopped by, too. He was out riding his Harley motorcycle on such a fine day.



Unfortunately, I didn’t get out much today, but this evening I was invited back to a Bible study I attended last year. As a special surprise treat for all the women, the hostess took us out to the island of Vigra for a little beachside grill and coffee/dessert hour (see photo). It was beautiful (but windy) and we all huddled around the “engangrill” (one time grill) they use a lot here to cook hotdogs in remote locations. I’m not much of a hot dog eater, but it had to be the best one I’ve ever had (wrapped in bacon, no less). It was a great time spent with a lovely bunch of women, in a beautiful place, just enjoying all of God’s creation. I didn’t get home until 11pm as we all wanted to stay until sunset. It was a typically wonderful kind of Norwegian outing – where it’s all about being together with others, out in nature, and being ever so thankful for yet another sunny day. Hallelujah!

A Busy Social Life

Most of my day today was spent being social. The tide has turned. There are several things I COULD have done, but I ran into LizBeth, my ex-neighbor (and bus riding partner) yesterday, and invited her to coffee today. I had to hurry through Kaleb’s school work this morning to get ready for her visit so I was a bit stressed, but it all worked out in the end. She loves our condo and coincidentally, she now works almost right next door. She changed jobs a few months ago and is only working half time and no longer takes the bus. I told her of our plans to use our condo as a business rental for short term situations and she offered to be our “agent” and do what she needs to do to get them rented and cleaned up afterwards. I didn’t even ask her or suggest she help, so I was quite pleased that she thought of that herself because she has a lot of rental experience. She has an apartment in her basement she has rented out for many years, so I was thrilled with her offer. We’ll see how things shake out over the next few weeks after we talk to some companies, but she would be a great help to us if we go in that direction.




One interesting thing LizBeth told me today was that the people who moved into our old place at the Sinking Houses only had a six month contract to live there. Norway had one of the worst winters on record for cold and snow. LizBeth said she couldn’t even let her little girls go out and play in the snow because they would have been lost – it was over their heads. It was also below freezing most of the winter. So I guess the people that became caretakers of The Sinking Houses didn’t know how to care for property the way Kory does, and all the pipes froze in January so they had no water coming in, and no way to get rid of the water in the house because the outgoing sewer drain pipes were frozen solid. They called up the Aalesund Kommune and complained about it, but the Kommune said there was nothing they could do, and there was only two weeks left of their contract so they just needed to deal with it. LizBeth said they dealt with it by putting plastic garbage bags over a bucket, using the bucket for a toilet, then throwing out the plastic bags in the garbage. When she heard about what they were doing (I’m not quite sure how she DID find out about it), she offered to let them move in to her basement apartment, where they are still living to this day – another coincidence. LizBeth was so disgusted with the Kommune that she told the renters they should just deliver their garbage bags right to the Kommune’s office downtown and tell them to deal with THAT. She’s a feisty one, that LizBeth. I like her.



So now we know why no one lives in The Sinking Houses – they are unlivable, as I suspected. The sewer lines have separated too much from the houses and it seems, the houses may be torn down. One garage has already been removed. I know when the Kommune bought that place out from under us, they had plans to do some work on the ground to stabilize it more, but now it appears they may just have to tear down the houses altogether. I’m so thankful God closed the doors on us buying them, but Kory still grieves their loss. He’s not a gracious loser.



LizBeth left just in time today for us to make it back over to our old neighborhood to have an early dinner with Tone and Sabina (Kaleb’s first friend in Norway). It was wonderful to spend the afternoon with them and to eat Tone’s good cooking (she’s a pro at everything she does.)



We came home for about an hour before we headed back to Agape Church to attend a concert by the Watoto orphaned kids from Uganda. Just before we were leaving, Kaleb started crying and saying how much he wished we didn’t care so much about him and his safety so he could have more time to play on his Nintendo and have a cell phone. I’ve told him kids are getting carpal tunnel from too much time on those hand-held games, and they’ve also linked brain cancer to excessive use of cell phones, therefore he has no cell phone and he’s limited to an hour a day (or more if he earns it) of his Nintendo. He was crying buckets and asking why he is so deprived when all the other kids don’t get similar restrictions. He even went so far as to say he wished he didn’t have any parents at all because then his life would be much easier… then off we went to hear these orphan kids tell their stories of living in the streets of Uganda, with no hope, no food, no parents, and how thankful they were for this Watoto orphanage and how it changed their lives. After listening to that concert and watching those kids dance and sing for joy, I think there was a little change in Kaleb’s life as well as he realized maybe he doesn’t have it so bad afterall.



After the concert we went to look at a used dishwasher that was advertised in the paper. The house where it was at was very near Kory’s mom’s childhood home (see photo I took tonight of Solevaag). As thrilled as I was to finally be buying a dishwasher, I was more thrilled that I remember to bring my camera along so I could take pictures of that amazing landscape scene – it’s quintessentially Norway to me and my heart skips a beat every time I see it.



In the photo, there is a cluster of trees on the right side, down by the water. Kory drew that landscape last year with an ink pen, then he hid an image of a Viking ship in the water, that is really only visible if the picture is turned upside down. He longs to be Bev Doolittle, I think. Anyway, his cousins that actually live in that picture, saw his drawing on Sunday and I pointed out his cleverly sketched Viking ship in the water. To our amazement, they said that there actually IS a Viking ship lying in the water in that exact spot. Who knew. Kory sure didn’t.

Hip, Hip, Hoorah!

Today is THE DAY. It’s the day, 105 years ago, Norway finally signed their own Constitution, putting an end to Sweden’s rule over them. The rain in no way dampened the spirits of the Norwegians around here and the festivities went on as if it were a fine summer day. (Double click on the photo to see just how long this parade is – Kaleb is in there somewhere.)




Kaleb joined his old classmates in the parade down Myrlandsveien (our old street). All the kids were either dressed in bunads (traditional Norwegian costumes) or their finest black attire. The bunads are regional, so everyone from the same area wears the same patterned bunad. Trying to pick someone out of a crowd on a day like today is sort of like looking in a “Where’s Waldo?” book. If people aren’t in their bunads, many are wearing black, so it was even hard to find Kaleb in the crowd, but there he was, waving his Norwegian flag with the rest of them. He didn’t know the words to the National Anthem most of the kids were singing as they walked along, but he may have yelled out a “Hip Hip Hoorah!” every now and then. He’s always so disappointed that parades in Norway don’t have anyone tossing candy to the crowd – but most of the people are IN the parade anyway, and not many are lined up on the side-lines. No floats, no clowns, maybe one marching school band and then just waves and waves of school kids and parents, walking along shouting out things that let the world know of the pure joy they feel over the significance of this day.



We decided not to go into the city this morning to see the big parade, mostly because we slept in a little, but also because of the rain. I used the morning to finally organize the bathroom cupboards and Kory went down to the storage unit to dig out some tools so hopefully tomorrow he can start building Kaleb’s wall. The supplies are in, we heard. Woo hoo. It was a wonderfully relaxing morning and would have been more so if Kaleb wouldn’t have been pestering us to either watch TV or play with electronics. He was terribly bored just sitting home. Such is life. Once I offered to fill his time with school work or journaling, he discovered a pencil and paper and began to draw cartoons.



We had planned to go visit Tante Ruth today after the parade and school festivities that follow, but we ran into Tobias’ family and they invited us to their “grill” (BBQ) afterwards. It’s hard to pass up that kind of invitation, as all of Kory’s other cousins were otherwise occupied (Turid had to work today). We also received another party invitation from Andre’s parents, but we had to turn that one down. It’s so great to be included in things here – something we rarely experience back home.



We talked a little with Morten’s mom today – he’s the kid that beat up Kaleb a lot last year. She said Morten is doing much better now that he is on medication. She also said he was SO excited when he came home from school one day with a bag full of American candy Kaleb gave to all his “best friends.” He was so proud he holds that rank. Little does he know Kaleb gave him that bag of candy as a preventative move, hoping to keep his blows at bay. It’s worked well so far, but he hasn’t been around him much. In a few weeks when Kaleb goes back to school, we’ll see if his plan worked.



The strangest thing about this 17th of May, from others we’ve been to in Norway, is how late the spring is. Normally, tulips and lilacs are blooming this time of year, but the daffodils are just now blooming and there is hardly a tree with leaves showing. It’s the norm to cut birch branches and bunch them together with a Norwegian flag and tie them to fence posts or door fronts, but this year people had to hunt a little to find any birch branches with sprigs of green – most of them are still in the budding stages. I do hope the cold weather is behind us now, otherwise all my deck plants will surely die. The locals consider 17th of May as really the first day of “spring” and now they feel summer is soon on its way.



Before we headed off to Tobias’ house, we visited with several people we hadn’t seen since last year. It was a great time of greeting and catching up a little. Our calendar is now filling up fast as people either want us over before we head home, or we invited them over to see our new digs. Good thing I brought my calendar.



While we were eating our yummy BBQ’d dinner, we asked Tobias what he is looking forward to the most about coming home with us this summer. He doesn’t know the options available, so he had a hard time answering. I do know he’s looking forward to being in America, so hopefully he won’t be disappointed. We have lots of things planned, but nothing comes close to the excitement Norwegians feel for the 17th of May. Hip, Hip, Hoorah!

The Day Before THE DAY

We walked across the street this morning to attend Philadelphia Church at 11am. We wondered why we were the only ones there, and then we found out the service has been changed to 11:30 now because there is no bus that comes from downtown Aalesund out our way until after 11am, and many that attend the church, take the bus. Smart move on the church’s part but I think it’s a bit silly the busses don’t start running until after 11 on Sunday mornings.




Just as we were turning around to leave church and go back home for a little while, in came Liv-Hilde, Kory’s cousin’s ex-wife. She lives near Oslo now, but is remarried and attends church when she’s in the area staying in her cabin near here. We were engaged in her house nearly 20 years ago. It was her ex-husband (Kory’s cousin) that “helped” us buy our condo (that’s a whole other story). It was good to see her smiling face, although I know there has been much pain in her life over the years. She and her new husband also had a half hour to kill, so they walked across the street with us to check out what we’ve done to the condo. She initially helped Aunt Ruth pick out the flooring and tiles for the bathroom and kitchen, and she was very involved in the design of our place. She approved of what we’ve done and liked it a lot, so that was nice to hear. She especially loved that the washer and dryer are hidden behind closet doors in the bathroom. It’s more typical they are just sitting out in the open, so she commented on how smart it was to hide them away (I think that was even her idea way back when.)



Kory invited two of his mother’s cousins and their spouses over for dinner this afternoon, so we had to rush home from church and get things going. It was our first big entertaining moment where we had a full house and some relatives here we didn’t really know. Jenny (Kory’s mom) was born on the Solevaag farm. Jenny’s uncle got the farm because he was the oldest son. He had five children and they all live near the farm to this day, and are around Kory’s age. We have had good contact with four of those five children over the years, but one brother, Arnfinn, not so much, for no specific reason, so today was the day we decided to get to know him and his wife a little bit better. They came with his sister, Oddrun, and her husband and grown son. We’ve had many a fine meal at Oddrun’s house over the years so we may never even the score with her, but we thought we’d try anyway. They are all very nice people to be around, but I have a hard time understanding their dialect as they are from the country, and they use a lot of slang I’m not familiar with. At least they understand me when I talk, because none of them speak a word of English. I don’t think they get out much. (See photo taken of them in our living room having dessert.)



I warned them they were eating true American food – Kory put some chicken breasts on the BBQ (a real delicacy here and not often consumed at five dollars per breast), and I put some huge potatoes in the oven to bake. I made a big salad and boiled some carrots. I tried to play it safe and not do too many weird things with the food, as Norwegians like their food pretty bland. I would bet not one of them has ever eaten a chicken breast in their life, and I know for a fact, they had never before eaten a baked potato. They’ve all eaten boiled potatoes probably every day of their lives, but no one ever thought to bake them. I had cheese, butter, sour cream, bacon, scallions, and corn (a Norwegian twist since they put canned corn on everything), sitting on the table for them to fill up their potatoes. They thought it was the most puzzling thing, ever. Arnfinn’s wife asked me how I knew how long to cook the potatoes and at what temperature must they be cooked. They were intrigued by the experience of slicing them open, squeezing them a bit in the middle to make a crater, then adding all those ingredients. They all managed to pull it off just fine and they cleaned their plates. Hardly anyone ate salad, as that is just not the norm here, but the carrots were nearly gone. When I served pecan squares and ice cream for dessert, they all wanted seconds on the ice cream. They complimented me on the Pecan Squares (they’d never tasted a pecan either – I brought those with me from America.) It was a foreign food festival in our house tonight, but no one went home hungry, I’m sure of that.



We are trying to use our BBQ as much as possible, before someone tells us we must get rid of it. Tante Kari informed us it is not allowed here. We thought maybe it was because of it being a fire hazard out on the deck or something, but as it turns out, it’s not allowed because people don’t like the smell of BBQ’d food. I find that so funny. If they all just BBQ’d food like we have in the U.S., they would experience the wonderful aroma of grilled chicken or steak, but when typical nasty Norwegian meats get put on a BBQ, they can really stink up the place, and even the locals don’t want it wafting into their homes. I hope we can use up our tank of propane before we have to give it boot, but then, maybe no one will complain about us because we are only BBQing American style.



At church this morning they mentioned several times that today is “the day before THE DAY.” Tomorrow is the most important holiday in Norway and the only one of two non-religious one – their Independence Day from Sweden. There’s nothing more important to a Norwegian, that to celebrate that they are no longer Swedes.

Sprucing Up

We have been shopping and shopping, trying to find some kind of wall unit/storage system/closet for Kaleb’s room. It’s the only place he’ll have to put his clothes, books and toys, so it needs to fit with the dimensions of wall that will hopefully soon be built. Today, ready or not, we bought a portable closet because it was a screaming deal for a little under a hundred dollars, brand new. I’m sure it was a mismarked item because even the receipt showed a price of double what we paid, but the tag on the display said it was 595 kroner, so that’s what they charged us. I couldn’t be more pleased. Now Kory just has to put it together, but he really does need something to do with his time. He fusses with things way too long if there aren’t enough projects stacked up for him to do. And now it seems he’ll be making some custom book shelves to go next to this closet because the remaining available space along that wall is anything but standard. I’m sure it will all work out just fine. Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that TV has entered our lives, this whole process would have been a slam dunk, but we have to make room for a TV in Kaleb’s room now so that’s what’s made this project so challenging. (The photo today is of our condo “blokk” – we are on the top floor, second balcony from the right.)



Every week in the paper, at least one local company puts an ad in the “Wanting to Rent” column, asking for a short term rental of a furnished apartment in good condition. They pay a high premium for that but the cheapest hotel around here is over three hundred dollars a night, so renting an apartment for a few weeks or months is still a bargain when they have business meetings or training seminars that last a while. Cousin Rune knows a guy that rented out his furnished apartment for two months to some Japanese business men who were here doing a study on the fishing industry. He got 60,000 kroner for two months – an unheard of amount (about $10,000). There is such a demand for that kind of rental that Kory and I are leaning in that direction as to what to do with our condo when we leave. We don’t care about making a lot of money, we would just like the basic expenses to be covered while it sits empty nine months a year, so even just a few months of business rentals could cover that – and hopefully keep the wear and tear to a minimum. I’m currently keeping a list of all the companies that are advertising, and when we install a dishwasher and get Kaleb’s bedroom all set up, I’m going to contact the companies and let them come take a look and see if we can get some regular customers established. It seems to be the best fit, since our location is totally primo. The only thing lacking at this point, is internet access, but I can order that once I know we are on the right path.



Currently, to get an internet signal, I discovered I can sit outside on the walkway in front of our neighbor’s condo. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than sitting in the parking lot down below, right outside the library. I still need to bundle up, and sit in a lawn chair. If the sun isn’t shining, I don’t stay long because the wind has been rather cold and brisk in the shade lately. If the sun is shining, there is such a glare on the screen, I can’t see anything anyway, so I don’t stay long then either. I can’t believe how restricted my life is without internet, and I’m sure if this condo is being used by business people, they won’t take kindly to my cheapo method of getting a wi-fi signal from the library down below.



I thought My Pal Vestina and I were going to go on a hike today, so I kept myself busy doing little tasks around the house, waiting for her to wake up and call me. It was another gorgeous day and a hike would have been just the ticket, but instead I continued the sprucing up of our deck, washing windows and dishes, hanging things on the walls and running around shopping for different things. She never called. All the while Kaleb was still over at Tobias’ house. So Kory and I were home alone, wondering what to do with ourselves. I finally called Vestina, who had a friend unexpectedly come to town, so our hike got postponed to another day. It was a little disappointing, but not too terribly much since I got so much done otherwise.



Our deck now is looking pretty spiffy, with flowers in every pot. It was hard to pay over $40 for a small little Rhododendron, but I want a few plants that might last more than this season. I hope my plan works, and they survive, so I don’t have to spend over a hundred dollars on flowers again next year. Our place is looking more and more “typisk Norsk” by the day. The only thing NOT typically Norwegian is that nothing is very new. Norwegians like to throw everything out every few years and have all new stuff inside and out. I’m not that wasteful so I’ll probably still have all this same stuff twenty years from now. Once I like something, I keep it. That little trait of mine often works to Kory’s advantage. I like him just fine.

A Taxing Day

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




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



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



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



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



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



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

En Kjempe Fin Tur (A Really Great Hike!)

Today is a national holiday because it’s Ascension Day – otherwise known in Norwegian as Himmelfartsdag – it means “Heaven Speed Day.” I guess they assume when Jesus ascended into Heaven, he went quickly. It’s a funny word to say, and hear in Norwegian.




The weather took a major turn for the better this morning and it was just too nice to stay indoors and organize a single thing. Kory called his cousin Odd (pronounced “Ode”) and asked if he and his wife, Turid (Turr-ree) and daughter Hege (Hey-gah) wanted to come with us. They thought it was a fine idea, so we all headed out to a nearby island and hiked along the beach then up to the highest mountain, which fortunately for me, wasn’t TOO high. It was an incredibly warm and beautiful day, even being right down by the ocean. We also ran into another cousin (the one whose daughter had her Confirmation last weekend). So many people were out enjoying their sunny day off that it felt like NOW we are really in Norway. Staying inside a condo all day unpacking boxes felt like I could have been anywhere, but today was pure Norsk.



We all wrote our names in the book at the top of the mountain. Each peak has a book and pen tucked inside a weatherproof box at the summit and everyone who makes it must write their name, the date and time, and how many times they’ve made the trip. They use those books as a way to keep track of how much certain trails are used to help allocate money for their upkeep. It was all of our first time to the top, but the guy right before us, it was his 90th time. I can’t believe people can remember those kinds of things. But they also remember the exact time it takes them to make it up. Just as we were descending, some guy was heading up the trail. He looked down at his watch (a familiar sight at the trail head) to see the current time. Everyone always try to beat their best time. These Norwegians are a hardy lot, that’s for sure.



I called Kaleb this morning to see if he wanted to go on the hike with us. He didn’t, so he stayed over at his friend’s house all day. Come to find out, the entire neighborhood where he was at knew about some events happening at the State Church right next to our condo, but not Andre, where he stayed. When Kaleb and Andre went outside to play with all their pals, they were all gone to the church, but they didn’t know it. Kaleb cried buckets when he told me about it later as there were all kinds of competitions and the kids got to use the climbing tower we see from our front door (they attached climbing holds to the bell tower and for special events, they hook up the safety harness and let the kids climb to the top.) Kaleb was so jealous all his friends were doing that while he was just waiting for them to come home so he could play. When I went to pick him up at seven tonight, he just cried. He wasn’t ready to come home, he was sleep deprived, and he was sorely disappointed in how his day turned out. Poor thing.



Odd and Turid invited us over for dinner tonight so I zoomed home after the hike (we were gone nearly six hours), and made some pecan squares with ingredients I brought with me from America. That dessert is the total bomb here and everyone loves it, especially Turid. We ate a late dinner out on their deck and after dessert, headed home to watch “Alt For Norge,” (Everything for Norway) a TV show that Tobias highly recommended to us. It’s like a Norwegian version of “Survivor” only it’s all American people with Norwegian ancestry. They compete in real Norwegian experiences and the winner will get to meet some of their relatives that still live in Norway. It was very funny. There is one guy from Seattle on the show but the bulk of them are from Minnesota. They filmed it last summer and it’s a big hit here in Norway as everyone enjoys laughing at the American buffoons who can’t even light a fire to save their lives. At least I made it to the top of a mountain today, and no one voted me off the island.

Real Life Begins

It definitely feels like we’ve turned a corner. We still have dozens of things to do to be fully settled in our condo, but they will sit lower on the priority scale. Our social life is now in the lead as we wait for Kory’s old bosses to come build Kaleb a bedroom wall.




Kory and I both sorted through boxes of Aunt Ruth’s things and there are still some sitting down in our car, but at least it’s manageable. I don’t feel overwhelmed with anything right now, which is a good thing. The house is orderly enough, it’s clean enough, it’s cute enough – I’m game for anything. I still have closets and shelves and drawers to organize, but I’m in no rush. I spent two hours at the library today trying to figure out what type of shelving system we should buy to attach to Kaleb’s new wall so he has a place to put things. With our current plan, his room will just have space for a bed and chair and shelves against the new wall. It’s a pretty tight space. I thought some kind of cubicle system from IKEA would be great but I had the worst time figuring out which types of shelves to buy just by using the internet. Cousin Kari offered her brother-in-law’s truck if we bought something – he could swing by the store in Oslo and pick up what we wanted and bring them here this weekend when he comes for a visit. It would save us IKEA’s $300 delivery fee. It put a little pressure on me to figure out what we wanted and the IKEA website wasn’t cooperating too well, so I finally gave up and figured we just might need to drive to IKEA ourselves (there is a store in Trondheim – only six hours away!) So much for making progress on Kaleb’s room. I guess until he has a wall, it’s useless to buy shelving to attach to it, but also, if the wall dimensions need to be altered a bit to fit the shelving, that’s a good thing to know ahead of time. I feel like it’s a Catch 22 in some ways. He still needs a bed, but as little as he sleeps here, it probably doesn’t matter anyway. He’s gone again tonight, spending the night with Andre (he’s the one on the right in the photo of Kaleb and friends, which I took today as I dropped him off.) Tomorrow is a national holiday here (Ascension Day), so the kids are out of school and nothing will be open. Kory and I made a mad dash to the grocery store so we could stock up on a few food items so we didn’t starve over the holiday. We have just been buying what we need each day as we haven’t had time to meal plan or leisurely shop for anything, so it was good we had time for that today.



We drove Kaleb over to his old school so he could greet his old teacher (actually, she’s pretty young), and ask if he can join his former classmates in the 17th of May parade on Monday. School is out until Tuesday now so this was his only chance to get permission. She was so excited to see him and said “Of course” he can join the parade. She also invited him back to school if he wants to go every day. I told her we are heading to Spain on the 24th so maybe he could start going daily for the last three weeks of school, since they mostly do special things those days anyway. He just beamed when she was talking to him and saying how exciting it would be to have him back in school. I was thinking she would probably do that. So, I think, that’s a done deal. She suggested I have him bring some of his home school material with him.



Kory did some repairs around the house today – replacing and repairing light fixtures and the shower nozzle (we have very low water pressure so something more may need to be done with that.) We planned a simple salmon BBQ dinner tonight without Kaleb around and since we had enough food we invited Tante Kari to come up and eat with us when we ran in to her in the elevator. She was overjoyed at the invitation. I made a blueberry cobbler and ran next door when it was fresh out of the oven and invited Tante Aslaug for coffee and dessert, because we had plenty. They both loved it, and they gushed over how “festive” our place was, all decorated and ready for the 17th of the May.

Tante Kari was going to throw out some cool old aprons from the 1950s that she got from Aunt Ruth’s things, so I asked her if I could have them. I’ve decided to hang them on the kitchen wall for decorations, as they are totally stylin’. I also got two hand embroidered dish towels I was going to hang up and when Tante Kari saw I was using them for decorations also, she offered to give me the three that she got, also. They each have one day of the week embroidered on them with the picture of a woman doing different household chores. I got “Friday and Saturday,” she got “Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.” (Tante Aslaug got the others, but she wants to keep everything she got.) The towels are totally cool and Kory said he’d build me a display rack for them, so now my kitchen walls won’t be so bare. Lord knows I can’t deal with too much empty space.

A Friend Filled Day

FINALLY I was able to have a little social time today. Kory continued the division of his Aunt Ruth’s property with her two sisters that live in the same building as us, so he was pretty much wiped out by day’s end. I didn’t want to be anywhere near that event as it exhausts me and there wasn’t much Aunt Ruth owns that impresses me more than the treasures I find in the second-hand stores. Kory feels a little differently about it all, of course, as there are several things that have meaning and bring back good memories for him, so it all worked out as it should.



I got a message from My Pal Vestina yesterday, asking me if I would volunteer to be her “model” today. She is still in hair styling school and she had yet to cut long, curly hair. I trusted her completely and I needed something done with this mop on my head, so I drove into the city first thing this morning to be her guinea pig. It was so GREAT to see her again! It wasn’t like being in Norwegian class or anything, as she was all professional and had to be on her best behavior with her boss standing over her most of the time, but still, we got in a few giggles. She took my coat and hung it in a closet, offered me a cappuccino, and while I was sipping it, she began discussing the plan for my hair with her boss (see “before” photo). She moved me to the “wash” room, where I sat in a massage chair with my head leaning back into the sink. My back was getting the royal treatment all the while Vestina was running her fingers through my hair. It felt luxurious, but not so much so that I would have paid $110 for the experience, which is what everyone else pays for a basic cut that is not a model for Vestina. Boy did I make out on that deal, and my hair now looks great. She thinned it quite a bit and used some expensive product on it so I no longer look like Bozo the Clown.


Vestina was the top student in her class. Twenty women began the classroom portion of this training last Fall. Only six made it to the “hands-on” portion of learning how to cut and style hair. Of those six, only one landed this intern job, and it was My Pal Vestina. She’s a clever one, that girl. I’m so proud of her.


I would have liked to stay on in downtown Aalesund until Vestina took her lunch break so we could have chatted a bit more, but I got text message from Sandra, another friend from Norwegian class, and she was heading to Moa (where we live) and wanted to stop by. I had to hurry back home to meet her and she showed up just as I walked in the door. She brought along her little miracle baby, Karl Alexander, who has got to be one of the cutest babies I’ve ever seen (and I’m not a baby person.) I prayed for that baby more than any other, so I’m particularly fond of him anyway, but in no way prejudice.


Sandra tried earnestly to have a baby for over ten years. The last several years she’s flown many times a year to Latvia to have in-vitro fertilization, because Norway considers anyone over 40 to be too old to be a mother and they won’t pay for the procedure here. Many of the procedures didn’t “take” or if they did, she miscarried in the first few months. But then, after I and some of my friends in America began to pray for her, she got pregnant. When she was two month’s along she started bleeding and they told her she lost the baby, but miraculously, she had twins, and she only lost one. I prayed the other baby would hold on, and he did. Her water broke 13 weeks before her due date, and I prayed again every day that the baby would hang on and be fully developed. She was in the hospital for three weeks until they finally decided to give her a c-section. Karl Alexander was born ten weeks premature, but it was as if he were full term. The nurses said they’d never seen anything like it. And now, being the cutest little nine month old, he’s right on schedule with what other nine month old babies do and his mom (now age 46) and dad, couldn’t be more pleased. Sandra was surprised with how well he reacted to me – not fussing a bit when I held him or she left the room and left me with him. I was so pleased he’s comfortable with me. It’s as if he knows…. Sandra said he won’t be left alone for a minute with her mother-in-law, and he never stops fussing when she’s around – so I even trumped the grandma. Ha!


While Sandra was still here, Kory got a call from our ex-neighbor Tone, and she was at the mall and heard we were in town, so she wanted to come up and see us. Sandra left as Tone came in, so then we sat and drank tea with her and caught up on all that’s new in her life. It was great to see her again, too. So now the word is out we are back, and just as I got the house totally looking good and all boxes out of here, Kory came home tonight with boxes and boxes of junk he got in the final division of Aunt Ruth’s property and now I have to figure out what to do with all of that. It feels like I took two steps back in the process of being settled, but it hopefully won’t be for long.


Kaleb was able to spend the afternoon with his buddies after he completed his school work this morning so we didn’t see much of him today, and THAT he says, is why he likes living here so much. I didn’t want to ask if it was the part that he gets to spend so much time with his friends, or the part that he gets to be away from us. Better not to know.

All the Boxes Are Finally Gone!

Unfortunately, we now have a TV. When we heard that the cost of cable was included in our condo dues, both Kory and Kaleb’s face lit up. Our friend, Tobias, loaned us his “not so big” TV (or so he says) out of his bedroom until we find one that fits our space. It’s bigger than any TV we’ve ever had in the U.S. and now dominates our living room landscape. We thought we knew how all the furniture should sit, but there was much discussion today about all new possible venues for maximizing the viewing of the TV. It made me crazy. I hate that television has invaded our home. All afternoon Kaleb was asking to watch it, then not turning it off when requested. It’s one more battle I wish I didn’t have, but I was outvoted. We don’t have TV reception in America in our house, but now we do here. Ugh.



The photo today is of our stylin’ 1940s bedroom set we got for $215 – including dresser, art deco mirror, two beds and mattresses and two night stands. We brought the wall decorations from home. Don’t miss Aunt Ruth’s elephant lamp in the corner. I bought the hand crocheted bed cover last year at a second-hand store for about $60 – a big splurge – but it reminds me of one my grandma made.


Today I was exhausting on more than one level. Besides the whole TV situation, we hauled out all the boxes of Aunt Ruth’s things from Kaleb’s room and took them over to Philadelphia Church (right next door). Cousin Kari had the great idea to unpack everything, group the like items together and set it up like a flea market so the aunts and Kory could see what was there. It filled an entire room in the basement of the church. I can’t believe she had all that stuff in our condo!


Cousin Kari and Kory hauled the boxes over, and Kari and I emptied them. By day’s end all that had been divided up were the linens, towels, sheets, curtains, doilies and table clothes. Most of what Kory got in his third will just be thrown out, but there were a few treasures and useful items I’m glad he got. He still needs to divide his share into fourths and give them to his brothers, but it’s not clear if they will pay for postage to have them sent over to the U.S. or not so we don’t know the “stuff’s” fate just yet.


I had a chance to buy my own STUFF today at another second-hand store in the city. Kory had to go to the “Alien office” (immigration) to see if he could get permission to work for his old boss, who is desperate need of carpenters right now. Kory wants to trade labor on the wall we are going to build for Kaleb’s room. The immigration office said he needed to apply for permission to work and it would take about two months for an answer on whether he could, or not. With that bit of news, I’m not sure how he is going to orchestrate building Kaleb’s bedroom wall, but something tells me he’s sorry he asked.


While he was waiting at the immigration office, I went shopping and found a few more treasures to call my own. I’m getting this place cluttered up fast, which is important for me to feel at home. I can’t believe how cheaply some things sell for as they are genuine antiques and it’s like they are garbage to people here. I’m thankful for that.


Kaleb did some schoolwork today and was responsible enough to do most of it himself. I so need him to be more self-sufficient as there is just too much to do here for me to look over his shoulder every minute. He didn’t fuss at all about not going to play with his friends today, and because of that, I let his PE class be an hour of swimming at the swimming pool just next door. He was thrilled.


My biggest thrill today came about ten o’clock tonight. We bought a used washer and dryer from one of Kory’s cousin’s sons – and he delivered it. They had loaned us that very set when we lived here last year. When we saw them at the Confirmation party on Saturday, we jokingly asked if they wanted to sell it to us – and to our surprise – they agreed. Oh happy day. I now have a load of clothes going and I’m feeling much more settled. It’s been way more work, and taken way more time than I thought to get to this point, but hopefully we are soon at the place where we can relax a bit. If not, I may need the kind of artificial relaxation that only comes in a wine bottle.

It's Snowing!

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




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



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



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



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

Losing Track of Time

Kory and I enjoyed a much needed leisurely morning today, drinking coffee and taking our time to attend to the day’s agenda. The house was quiet with Kaleb gone. It was raining a little too, so all the more reason to stay cozy warm inside and relax a bit.




I finally decided I was tired of stepping over messes and boxes and piles of things so I unpacked every last box and just threw things in cupboards and closets. If any door is open now, an avalanche is assured, but at least from the outside, our little home is starting to feel wonderful. I’m ready for company now. Kaleb’s room is still a disaster zone but I can overlook that as it’s not in my flight path as I zoom from one room to another.



A little after noon today I realized if I didn’t get to the store soon, there would be no bread to buy, as they only make enough for one day at a time and by late afternoon there isn’t a loaf to be had (as we found out Friday). With all the stores closed tomorrow, I needed two day’s worth, so I had to stop my incessant putting-things-away mode, and go shopping for a few food items. I saw two people I know at the mall, which has been my average each time I’ve gone. It’s a small town, so there always needs to be enough time factored in for a short visit to be polite. No one is ever in such a hurry that a quick “hello” will do.



Later, Kory decided to join me in my daily run to the second-hand store to see if I could find some plant stands and shades for some light fixtures. We are also now in the market for some kind of art work to go above the couch, so he wanted to be sure we were in agreement on that one. We got there at 2:05, and it closed at two o’clock, so we just missed it. We drove into downtown Aalesund to visit a few more second-hand stores and we got to one by 2:25 and had five minutes to shop before they closed. We managed to buy a light fixture for the hallway, a beautifully wooden carved spoon to hang on the wall, and a small copper bucket for a kitchen decoration. I waste no time. We then headed to the stores that sell new things, in search of a bunk bed set for Kaleb’s room. We found one we like but were unable to buy it because I forgot the code for my Norwegian bank card, so I have to wait until I get that, or enough cash to pay for it. Hopefully by Monday we can start clearing out Kaleb’s room and get that in order.



We didn’t hear from Kaleb all day, so we knew he was having fun. We were invited to a Confirmation at noon today – the daughter of one of Kory’s cousins – and we were so engrossed in what we were doing at the time, the time just slipped by and we missed it. Major faux pa in the Norsk world. We were also invited to the coffee/cake hour at six o’clock tonight – the party that follows a Confirmation, so we were sure to get to that on time. We almost didn’t make it because we had to dig for proper clothes and shoes to wear, find the ironing board and iron, and get ourselves somewhat presentable. Confirmation parties are as formal as they get around here so we couldn’t go looking like our usual grungy Northwest native selves.



As I was sitting at the party, someone wheeled in this ancient looking old woman and I was trying to figure out whose great-grandmother she must be. It took me several minutes, but then I realized it was Tante Ruth! She’s changed so much in the months since I last saw her, I didn’t recognize her AT ALL. She’s gotten way too thin (she used to be rather plump), and she’s aged dramatically. I went over to give her a hug and say “Hi” and she just kept moving her head closer and farther away trying to see who was standing in front of her. She couldn’t see me at all, and I kept yelling in her ear that it was Mickey, but she just shook her head and said she didn’t know who was there. It broke my heart. (See photo of Kory and I with her – she didn’t even know she was having her photo taken.) This was a big outing for her – to go to a Confirmation party, as she’s been invited to many of them, but would never venture out of her apartment. She’s been a recluse for many years, so it was really something that she was there tonight. It almost didn’t matter where she was, her world is about the same wherever she goes if she can’t see or hear a thing. Tough stuff.



Kaleb finally called me about 8:00 to ask if I’d drive him to his next sleepover. I left the party to go pick him up and he was so exhausted from lack of sleep last night, he nearly fell asleep in the car during the five minute car ride. He asked if it was OK to not do two sleepovers in a row because he was so beat, so we drove up to his friend’s house to explain the situation, and as it turned out, it was fine with him because he had to unexpectedly babysit his younger siblings – so he got a rain check on the sleepover with Haavard. Good thing.



I took Kaleb back to the party and had to explain the situation to everyone, as he was dressed like a rag-a-muffin with dirty sweats, one sock on and one sock off (it got muddy), dirty shirt and hair sticking out all over the place. All he cared about was the cake and pop as he hadn’t eaten dinner. He started falling asleep in my lap before finishing the first piece of cake, so we headed home soon thereafter. Otherwise, it was a nice party as we got to see lots of relatives that live in other parts of Norway.



Today was the first day no one stopped by our home. Most relatives were busy with the Confirmation festivities. Kaleb has decided he wants to come back and live in Norway when he’s 14 so he can be Confirmed here. It’s quite the motherload of gifts and cash, but I’m sure the cost of the party far exceeds anything the kid’s get. Confirmation parties are more like a “coming of age” party in Norway – where they formally celebrate the life of the child. Not long ago, the 15 year old Confirmant, was considered an adult and free to do as they pleased. I think Kaleb is already there.

Tough Decisions

Kaleb had a big problem to face today. Three of his best friends each asked him if he could have a sleepover this weekend, and there are only two available nights in which to do it. He pondered all day how to solve that problem. I suggested he take them in the order they asked, but his absolute best friend, Toban, asked last, and that’s where he wanted to go first. Next weekend is a four day weekend because of the 17th of May (Independence Day), so I wasn’t sure if people were going out of town or not. I e-mailed the mom of Andre and asked if they were available next weekend instead, and they were, so that got him off the hook with Andre, so then it was down to just Haavard and Toban. Whew.



Kaleb flew through his school work and did very well in all of it (he played piano at Tante Kari’s, and she was more than impressed). He worked hard to get it all done so he could catch the one o’clock bus over to his friend’s neighborhood. I told him I’d drive his overnight things to him later. He called about four o’clock and told me his fourth best friend, Henrik, also wanted him to have a sleepover but Henrik’s mom solved his problem by inviting Andre and Toban as well, so he is having one big reunion sleepover tonight with three of his friends and tomorrow he’ll be one-on-one with Haavard. He’s on cloud nine. When I took his PJs, toothbrush and clean undies over to him, all the boys were outside playing on a neighborhood swingset and Kaleb’s face was just glowing. I couldn’t have been more pleased to see how happy he is. It makes me sad for all the time he spends with just us, and nothing to do.


We had plenty to do today so Kory and I just kept plodding along. It was another beautiful, sunny day, but with both front and back doors open, the condo kept nice and cool, while we scurried to and fro. Kory got the last of the boxes out of storage. Tante Kari suggested using a grocery cart to assist in moving. I guess everyone that lives here does it, since the grocery store is basically attached to this building. They don’t have homeless people pushing grocery carts up and down the sidewalks in Norway, so no one really appreciated how silly Kory looked doing it, but it did help preserve his back, as the last of the boxes had books in them. He also spent a great deal of time assembling shelving and storage units we bought for our other house when we first moved here in 2008. I’m completely impressed and amazed that everything we bought new back then, fits exactly to the centimeter in the places we wanted to put them now. In the kitchen there was a space between the end of the cabinets and the wall, and two shelving units fit there, snug as a bug. In our bedroom closet, there was one space that fit perfectly a set of wire drawers, floor to ceiling, without impeding any other things. Even Tante Kari was impressed. She said it was as if God knew way back then that we would be using those things here. I agree it was pretty close to miraculous. It’s so great to have a place to put things!


I was able to get through all the boxes (except things for Kaleb’s room, since he has no space to put stuff since it’s currently filled up with all of Tante Ruth’s boxes.) Our bedroom is finally in order, the kitchen is done and presentable. The bathroom is about half way there and the hallway (which contains my office) just needs a bit more tidying up. We couldn’t hang all the things on the wall just yet because the two walls we share with neighboring condo owners are made of concrete and Kory has to borrow a jack hammer from Rune in order to hang photos and wall mounted light fixtures. We found out from Tante Aslaug that the two wall sconces we got in the division of property, belonged to Kory’s great-grandparents and are very old (from the first days electricity came to Norway.) Who knew.


I returned to my favorite second-hand store today looking for more light fixtures. They all greeted me like an old friend when I walked in. I’m sure I’m their best customer as of late. I found the most comfortable, beautiful, seemingly brand new overstuffed chair there for $35. It has the same color of slate/gray blue that our couches have in them and I nearly peed my pants I was so excited. I thought we needed just one more chair and this one certainly fits the bill. Kory has basically taken possession of the Stressless recliner I bought, so I wanted a “comfy chair” as well. (See photo of me writing this blog, sitting in said chair in front of our new sheer, navy blue curtains.)


Tonight Kory and I were so tired we didn’t want to cook so we thought we’d splurge and go out to dinner (nothing fancy, just a cafeteria style café in the mall.) It was a little after seven o’clock when we walked over there, and they were closed – on a Friday night! It is so hard to get used to the opening hours of places in Norway, when in the US we are used to so many things being open 24 hours. The banks here are open only from ten until three. Restaurants will close between five and seven. Most of the mall shuts down at six, but some grocery stores stay open until eight. We walked over to the grocery store (the mall our condo is attached to has absolutely everything in it – banks, grocery and hardware stores, bakeries, travel agencies, gardening and electric stores, you name it.) We bought some ready made food to take home and put on the BBQ. They sell shish-kebabs in the frozen food section, and also tin foil packages of mixed vegetables, salmon and the seasoning, so all that’s needed is to set them on the grill. It was the fastest food we could find. About twenty minutes later we were sitting down to a yummy BBQ dinner out on the deck. Kory had to buy a beer to go along with it, and he shouted HALLELUJAH more than once while drinking it. It was another great day in paradise.

Over the Hump

We are more settled than NOT right now so that feels good. We’ve had such fantastic weather these past few days, I’ve hated that I needed to be inside all the time packing up Ruth’s things, cleaning and unpacking our stuff, but such is life. We woke up on Tuesday morning to winter, with an inch of snow on the ground, but by afternoon it was mid-summer around here and I had to change into a short sleeved shirt and shorts, it was so hot. Weird. Today I even managed to sun myself out on our deck for a few minutes when I needed a little break, but it was so hot I had to go back inside. I can’t stand how much I love being here. The view from our deck is inspiring (see photo taken at 10:30pm tonight with the sun still shining on the mountain peaks – it trumped the photo I was going to post of our new curtains – that will come later.)



Today was the first day I tried to get Kaleb back on some kind of school schedule. Boy does that kid know how to drag his feet. He did pretty well on his grammar assignments, he skipped piano altogether and he nearly flunked out of his on-line science course. We had to go to the library so he could use their computer (it is so close I really could hit it with a rock from our balcony). The headphones on the computer didn’t work so he couldn’t hear the lecture. He tried to read the words at the bottom of every screen, but he just couldn’t concentrate enough for that. The library has a one hour time limit and it wasn’t until he’d used up 33 minutes that he let me know he wasn’t learning anything. I wasn’t too happy about that. He switched to a different computer, which worked, so he finished up the lecture then had to take the quiz using my laptop because his minutes had run out. He was over two hours late to go play with his friends after they got out of school because I told him he couldn’t go until he passed his science quiz. He decided to listen to the lecture a second time to be on the safe side and he got 88%, so that wasn’t too bad – considering the subject matter was pretty foreign to him (it was on heredity and genomes, etc. I never would have passed it no matter how many times I watched the lecture.)


We didn’t bring up a single box from the basement today as we decided to just keep unpacking the boxes we had in the condo. I got the kitchen totally clean, decorated and things organized. I didn’t realized until I was done that I had used every single cupboard for dishes and kitchen things and didn’t have any place to put food. Since we had only purchased things we ate right away, we didn’t have any food inventory around for me to even think of it, until Kory brought it up. I had a little reorganizing to do after that. Aunt Ruth had a lot of different kinds of dishes, and Kory didn’t want to get rid of any of them. He used a very cool plate to set his lunch on, and he accidentally bumped it off the bread board, so it went crashing to the floor along with his slice of bread and stack of sardines on top. I told him I liked that plate a lot so I was sorry it broke. He told me, “I liked that plate too, but what I liked best about it was that it had food on it!” He was pretty hungry so he had to make his lunch all over again. Kaleb thought that was pretty funny.


I love setting up house and decorating things to make our place feel homey. After having done it in the recent past here, and now doing it again, I feel like those people who have affairs just because they like the newness in relationships – I somehow feel like I’m cheating on our house back home.


There’s been a non-stop parade of relatives coming through our condo since we got here. I totally love that. Once the word got out we put up new curtains, everyone had to come see them. They all agreed they let in more light and they love them. When we moved the furniture around from the way Aunt Ruth had it – they all had to come take a look at that, too. There isn’t a thing we do that they don’t gush over. Tante Kari even asked me today if I’d come over to her place when I have time to help her redecorate – she thinks I have a gift. Not really, but it’s nice she thinks so.


I’ve debated heavily about what to do with the toaster cover Tante Ruth left behind. It’s sort of a white plastic fabric with the silhouette of two dancing black poodles on the side. It’s so out, I’m sure it’s in. I’m keeping it for the time being, but it’s certainly not my style. But either is the elephant lamp that we ended up with because no one else wanted it (it was the last choice on the lamp selecting process the other day). I like the shade on the lamp, but the black elephant figurine is just too much. I can’t imagine where it came from, but I’ll be sure to ask. Lord only knows it’s probably worth a fortune in the US antique market.



I haven’t even touched the bathroom, so that’s tomorrow’s focus, as well as putting away the rest of our clothes and getting the bedroom and "my office" (i.e., desk) finished. We haven’t unpacked the boxes with all our wall decorations yet so by the end of tomorrow we should be looking rather complete, once we finish up with those things. We retrieved out BBQ tonight from a cousin that babysat it for us while we were gone – can’t wait to enjoy our deck with a little shrimp and salmon on the “barbie.”


I got a great night’s sleep last night – good bed and totally over jet lag. My camera is back in action now that I found the battery charger for it (the battery went dead on the flight over here). My computer can now get charged up since I found the power converter, and there is clean underwear in my drawer. All is pretty great in my world right now. It’s amazing how good a simple life can be.

Unpacking

I finally reached the stage today I could start unpacking our things. With help from some of the cousins we were able to box up all of Tante Ruth’s stuff and stash it in “Kaleb’s room” (which isn’t there yet because we haven’t built the wall). At least it’s all out of my way so I could clean and start opening the boxes we had in the basement. Oh, how I needed to find a few things, like the coffee grinder, our clothes and bedding and the power converters I use for my computer. Now, life feels less pressured and I’m sure I’ll get a good night’s sleep. There’s still plenty to do but at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel. (The photo was taken a few years ago while standing in the living room, facing the area which will become Kaleb’s bedroom.)


I was invited to a prayer meeting this morning, held by “The Praying Women” as I call them. It was so great to be back together with them and pray and pray and pray. They are a powerful group and they see many answers to prayers – one of them being my return – so that was nice to hear.

While I was at the prayer meeting, Kory and his cousin Rune (pronounced Roo-na) were doing some repairs to things that had broken over the years in our condo. They also set up our kitchen table and put the anti-scratch pads on the bottom of all the furniture. The hardwood floors have taken a beating over the years as furniture got pushed around without them. So much prep work to be done before we get this place nice and cozy, but we have time, so it’s OK.

Jonathan, Kory’s ex-boss, came over this evening to give a bid on how much it would cost to build a wall for Kaleb’s room. We were all set on a full sized wall with a pocket door to partition off part of the living room for him, but when we sat on the couch and looked out at the mountains, we realized we’d lose that view through his bedroom window if we built such a wall. I was awake for many hours last night (like from 2:00 am until 5:30am), thinking about that wall (and writing my blog for yesterday). We decided a stair step partition would be better, so the light can still come through to the living room and it can easily be removed if we someday don’t need an extra bedroom anymore. Jonathan will trade labor with Kory so we don’t have to pay the $100 an hour labor charge, but I was surprised when he said it would only be about $300 in materials to build it. That is WAY under my estimate, so now I might splurge and buy a NEW dishwasher, rather than a used one. I certainly can’t live much longer without one. The sink is so small, just one plate and a cup fill it up and it’s impossible to get a pitcher under the faucet, so there must soon be a solution to that problem. I think I might splurge and ask for a new sink and faucet as well.

I hung up our new curtains today that had I bought before we left town last year. They were originally priced at $40 for a meter wide section, but I scored big time when I bought them from a store that was going out of business for $1.50 each. I put up new curtains in the entire apartment for under $20. Even the locals were impressed with that kind of bargain. No one envies the bargains I get on used items because used things are so undesirable to everyone, but finding something NEW for a good price was a major find. Kory doesn’t like the curtains however, but he’s just NOT thinking about how much money I saved. He’ll come around. I like them just fine. (See photo of the BEFORE curtains – they were dark and blocked too much of the light – tomorrow I’ll post the AFTER shot.)

Kory went to visit Aunt Ruth today. He said it was as if he weren’t even in the room. Her hearing aid isn’t working properly so she couldn’t hear him, and she is now nearly totally blind so she had no idea he was there. Poor thing. He said she isn’t complaining, but she was too distracted by her condition to enjoy his company much. She’s supposed to get a new hearing aid tomorrow, so we’ll all go see her after that happens.

Kaleb continues to enjoy his freedom today so we haven’t seen much of him since we got here. He has been helpful when he’s around though, bringing up things from the basement and running things out to the trash. He came home from his playtime this afternoon with one of his best friends, Andre. Andre brought some kind of Scrabble like game and they sat for a few hours quietly in our bedroom, playing the game while we worked. They helped out a little, when asked. Andre stayed on for the dinner Kory made of fishballs, boiled potatoes and carrots – Andre just ate the potatoes. I’m not too fond of fish balls myself, so I was sure to put bread and cheese on the table so I wouldn’t go hungry. It was our first meal in our very own kitchen, eaten among boxes stacked higher than our chairs, but it couldn’t have been any better, unless of course, we’d eaten something other than fish balls.

Getting Settled

It was a full day today and I had only one thing in mind – to buy a bed so I could get a decent night’s sleep. Last night I got the couch, Kaleb was on the floor and Kory was in Aunt Ruth’s single bed. I hardly slept, both due to jet lag and the fact the couch wasn’t long enough for me to fit head to toe. I woke up pretty crabby.


Kory’s only task for the day was to meet with his two neighboring aunts and go through at least the furniture and kitchen things and divide up what has been left behind. That was not at all an easy thing for anyone but at least by the end of the day most of the big stuff was out of the condo so we had room to start settling in. There is still about thirty boxes of things yet to go through – mainly books, linens, photos and some decorative items, and that may well take the entire time we are here to complete.

The process they use to divide things up is very time consuming. Each item must be talked about and analyzed and written on a list. They had several methods for dividing up things, depending on whether someone else was interested in it or not. I finally couldn’t stand the painstakingly slow methods and left to go buy a bed, a desk, a few lamps and some decorative items at the local Salvation Army. That was way more fun. Nothing in our condo has any sentimental value to me (nor was it attractive enough to keep) so it was fine with me if they just tossed it all out, but others didn’t feel the same. At one point I just said that all I needed was for everything to be gone, one way or another. Later I was pulled aside by a cousin who told me that was a hurtful thing to say because the two sisters to Aunt Ruth were having a hard time cleaning out her place and it was as if I just wanted her gone. They weren’t in quite the hurry I was as it’s taken some getting used to, that she is no longer their neighbor. I had to apologize for my crassness, but the aunt’s said they took no offense, so that’s good. I think they were just being polite, but the good thing about being in Norway is, people are VERY tolerant and forgiving so it’s not like I have a strike against me for opening my big mouth and saying something about it. I blamed it all on lack of sleep and only thinking about my own needs.

I took Kaleb to buy a bus pass today so he has begun his life of freedom. He took the bus over to his old school and waited outside for all the kids to come out. He was loaded down with a backpack of American candy (at least 10 pounds of it, I’m sure), which I guess he literally tossed at them like a parade or something. The excitement over the candy was secondary to them seeing him again. He said they were all squealing and gushing over him being there and several of them skipped soccer practice so they could play with him. He couldn’t have been more pleased. I let him stay there until dinner time and told him to catch the five o’clock bus home. He missed that one, so he ended up walking, which took him nearly an hour. In America, I get nervous if he walks down our driveway to get mail by himself, but here, he can walk for miles from home with no worries. That’s gotta be one of the best things about living in Norway.

The cousins were all here tonight helping us move furniture in and out and to bring up some of the boxes of our things in the storage unit in the basement. It was like a bee-hive of activity for several hours. While the rooms were empty I was able to wash down the walls and floors, which was a good thing as it was pretty dusty in some places. We still have several days of work before we are going to be living any kind of normal life around here, but today felt fairly accomplished and wonderful. I really like our new bedroom set – it’s high quality furniture from the 1940s, in very good condition. We had to buy two twin beds and attach them together because double beds are pretty rare. We got the entire bedroom set (2 beds with headboards and mattresses), a dresser with a cool art-deco style mirror, and two bedside tables for about $215. I also bought a leather “Stressless” recliner chair with ottoman for $21. They sell new ones for about a thousand dollars. The economy of things here is so weird because no one likes old or used things. Now, if I could just find a “used” food store, we could stretch the dollar even further.

We're Baaack... (photos to follow)

Just as the plane touched down in Aalesund, Kaleb yelled out, “We’re home! We’re home!” He couldn’t be more excited and I find myself a little giddy as well. I wish I knew what it was, but there is certainly a sense of belonging here unlike any place I’ve ever lived. Hallelujah, we made it back!


We had an easy flight to Iceland, without a hitch. The seats were comfy and extra wide and the video on demand made the time literally fly by. We had a quick stop in Iceland to catch the flight to Oslo. Kaleb managed to sleep about an hour, so I was thankful for that. I think I closed my eyes for about five minutes and Kory was awake the whole time. We are all a little rummy right now as it’s 9:30 Monday morning Seattle time, which means we’ve pulled an all-nighter and we still have a few hours before we can go to bed in Norway, hoping to adjust to the time zone quickly.

We also have to stay awake to await the arrival of our luggage. Our flight to Oslo got in a little late so we had to run to catch our connection to Aalesund. The ticket agent at the airport said not to wait for our luggage, just get on the plane and file a missing luggage report when we land in Aalesund. We did that, so now we are waiting for it to arrive. It’s all just gifts and household decorations anyway so it’s no big deal, but we really can’t fall asleep until they deliver it. We love that we actually get to sleep in our condo tonight – for the first time since we bought it in 1999.

Most of Aunt Ruth’s things have been moved out with her to her new room at the assisted living home, but there’s still quite a bit to sort through and figure out who wants what. I’d just as soon toss it all out so I can start unpacking tomorrow and getting settled, but I doubt it will happen that fast, so patience is a must.

We hadn’t been on Norwegian soil more than five minutes when Kaleb started whining about wanting to be with his friends. As Kory sat and had cake and coffee with Tante Kari (it’s her 82nd birthday today), I drove Kaleb over to his best friend Toban’s house. Now there was a happy reunion. I left him there a few hours while I went and got some money out of the bank to fill the tank on our van (at $8 a gallon – so it was nearly $150 to fill it), and pick up a few things for breakfast tomorrow (another $70 gone in an instant.) It’s a good thing we love it here so much, otherwise the prices would make me crazy, as I’m back in “sticker shock” mode.

A snow storm just blew through town. It hailed earlier today, but we’ve also seen the sun quite a bit. All the ground is white though because it’s pretty darn cold right now. I even love the ever changing weather.

Kory stopped by to ask his old boss if he’d give us a bid to put up a wall in our condo to make a bedroom out of part of the living room (as it was originally designed.) He said he’d try to come by tomorrow, but he’s pretty busy and he asked Kory if he’d go back to work for him. Maybe Kory will trade some labor to help offset the cost of the wall, as we do need to get Kaleb his own bedroom.

The “house” is so quite now that everyone is gone. We were greeted by all the cousins earlier today as most of them gathered for Tante Kari’s birthday. Now it’s just us – Kaleb lying on the floor in what will soon be his bedroom, reading books he’s already checked out of the library, Kory in the kitchen making room in some cupboards for our food, and me sitting in the living room on the computer. Life is simpler here, even with a big to-do list because we don’t do anything alone. All the cousins have already offered to help build the wall, move furniture, get us settled. It takes a village to settle down a Norwegian.