The Fire

It won’t be easy skipping one day of school per week as there are so many new things introduced every day. But The Good Teacher Inga is more than supportive and she gave me yesterday’s homework and took a little time to catch me up on what I missed. Things still aren’t clicking too well for me, but I’m hoping one day they will. Today we had another go-round of all the prepositions, which are just horrible. For every preposition we have in English, they have two or three for the same word in Norwegian. And what makes it worse is most of their prepositions do double time and mean two or three different things so it’s all about the context in which it is used that makes it understandable. If you wanted to say “in the summer” for example, you would either say, “om sommeren” or “til sommeren” or “i sommer,” depending on if you are talking about “in the summer” that happens every year (the season), “in the summer” that’s coming up next or “in the summer” referring to what happens during the summer. The preposition “om” also means “during,” or “whether,” or “if” or a host of other things as it gets paired with other words to form a phrase and it takes on no particular meaning half the time. The word “til” is a commonly used word meaning “to” – so you give a gift “til” someone or you travel “til” a city. And the last preposition that kills me is just the letter “i” as it’s thrown in all kinds of places that and I’ve yet to figure out the whys and hows of it all. And these are just three of the lovely little words that are currently making me insane. I can honestly say I don’t think I’ll ever master the proper use of prepositions. But then, I haven’t done that in English either, so that’s no surprise. I HATE prepositions!

Kaleb had a great day at school as he used some of his free time to get a few pages of his homework done so he wouldn’t have to spend so long doing it at home. Last night as he was working an algebra problem he started whining that it was just too hard and he couldn’t do it. I saw it was something he knew how to do but he was just looking for excuses to not do it. I told him if he was able to figure it out, and I couldn’t, he could get some extra time on his Nintendo today. That sure lit a fire under his butt and he had it done in no time flat and got it correct no less. I however, hadn’t the foggiest idea how to solve it but it turned his whining into gloating in an instant. He so needs to be motivated to do anything. I was kind of hoping he’d be more of a self-starter, but I haven’t seen much evidence of that.

Today began Kaleb’s foray into the internet to do research, and it’s so nice he now has his own laptop to use for such a thing. This week his homework assignment was to find out three facts about the fire that burned down the city of Ålesund in 1904. The scene of the aftermath is pretty devastating (see photo) – the entire town burned down (850 houses) which displaced 10,000 people. The fire started in the middle of the night in a factory, and there were such strong western winds blowing that it took no time at all the burn up all the wooden structures. When the first fire alarm sounded the fire “trucks” had trouble getting to the scene because the horses, which pulled the water tanks, wouldn’t go near it until they were blindfolded. The only death was that of an elderly woman who went back to her house to get her purse. Many houses on the perimeter of town were spared, but there was just one house, in the midst of all the rubble that stands out in all the photos (if you double click on the photo you can see it – it’s a white house behind the smoke in the background). As the story goes, the man that lived in that house was a strong Christian. He said God told him if he left his house, it would burn and anything taken out of the house would burn; but if he stayed, it would remain unharmed. All the houses around his burned to the ground, but not his, as he believed God and he wouldn’t leave. His wife and children left, but he wouldn’t go. It must have been like the story in the Old Testament about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace. Talk about putting a person’s faith to the test! His wife and children were okay, but they took some things out of the house which did get burned up. There was a documentary made about that man many years later. He is one guy who knows how to listen to the voice of God. I’m not sure I’m that well connected or have that kind of faith but I'm sure his faith touched many.

While the town of Ålesund was still smoldering, the last King of Prussia (Keiser Wilhelm II of Germany) who had visited the town previously and loved it, sent several ships full of supplies for the people, and building materials to rebuild the town in the Art Nuevo fashion it’s so well known for today. Most locals feel as horrible as the fire was at the time - in the long run it turned out to be a good thing. I hope people can say the same about me someday.

The Sabbath Begins

Today began my self-imposed Sabbath on Mondays. Oh, it was good. I made Kaleb’s lunch last night so I didn’t need to get up for that, and I let him get his own breakfast. I tried to sleep in, but had too much anxiety over him not getting out the door on time, so I got up and saw him off to school. He’s back to riding his bike now that all the ice has melted. Kory was off to work before either of us got up so I had a wonderfully peaceful house all to myself for a good six hours today. It was as close to heaven as it gets. And I promised myself I wouldn’t even touch my computer during that time – just spend it in prayer and Bible study. It was time well spent and I feel so much better. I was a little stressed about a few things, but God gave me the answers I was looking for.

I have been asked to speak for 15 minutes at Filadelfia Church this Thursday – before the group that assembles to pray for an hour or two each week. They left the subject matter open, so I had to ask God what I should talk on and I got my answer today – soaking prayer! I love doing that so it will be an easy talk. Most of the time when I pray, I’m so busy ASKING God for things I rarely hear what He wants to say to me. About a year ago I had a big “ah-ha” moment after Kaleb crawled into bed with us one morning and fell back asleep. I couldn’t sleep so I just laid there next to him kissing his head and lovin’ on him. I don’t know what benefit he got out of all that as he was sound asleep, but I know it sure made me feel better and it gave me more patience with him that day. I also liked the fact I could be so close to him when he wasn’t talking, wasn’t asking a million questions, wasn’t wriggling around, wasn’t poking me with an elbow. Then it occurred to me that God has the same desire to be with us like that – and that can only happen when we are STILL, NOT talking to Him, and just soaking in whatever it is He has for us. So many incredible things have happened to me during that time, so that’s what I’m going to talk about – the power of soaking prayer and receiving love from God. I can’t wait. And the good news is, I can speak in English, as they all understand it perfectly. Then the rest of my time alone today was spent preparing the speech (without the aid of my computer), and beginning to work on the Bible study we will start next week on the book of James. That was also a very powerful time for me. There’s so much good stuff in that book – it’s gotta be my favorite. So all-in-all, I’m off to a good start having Monday’s to myself.

Kaleb came home a little after two o’clock soaking wet. I tried to tell him his favorite jacket is NOT a rain jacket, but he wouldn’t listen. Today he found out I was right. He was soaked to the bone all day as he neglected to put on his rain pants too. This is how they learn. I had some warm “risgrøt” waiting for him (rice porridge) when he got home – his favorite Norsk meal anytime of the day. Then he sat at the table and did homework for nearly six hours! (I sat beside him and FINALLY did some of mine, too.) He wasn’t motivated for some reason so most of that was wasted time but I’m glad I had my batteries recharged today or I would have been very flustered with him. His teacher is starting to kick it up a notch with the homework though so I’m glad he’s dropping out of the afterschool program so he has more time for school work (although I really wish he didn’t have any.)

Kory worked out in Langevåg today, mostly by himself. He worked all day with praise music blasting throughout the house so he came home in a good mood. He told me a little about the construction of houses today and how they run plastic conduits all throughout the house wherever there will be plumbing or wiring. Then later, the plumber and electrician snake in the wires or water pipes. The water pipes are more like an industrial hose (one for hot and one for cold) as they are flexible and all one piece so they can’t break. But assuming they did break, the water would be contained inside the plastic conduit and it would come out at the junction box where there is always an in-floor drain – so water damage isn’t really an issue. The electrical wires are also protected inside the conduit so little critters can’t gnaw on them. Houses here have several smart designs in their construction - like the heated entry floors and bathroom floors (mold is never a problem if the room is always warm). All interior doors are always kept shut in homes here because heating is zonal, not central. As a result, they put little signs on the outside of the bathroom doors so visitors don’t accidentally walk into a closet when they need to pee. Most of the signs just say “W/C” –borrowing from the British term for “Water Closet,” but the sign I put on our bathroom door just says “BAD.” That’s actually the real Norwegian word for “bathroom,” (pronounced bah-d) but it’s also an accurate description of how it that room sometimes smells - so it's more like a warning.

Good-bye to Andreas

Today was possibly the last day we will ever see Andreas. Early Tuesday morning he flies to Australia to attend Bible school at Hillsong for at least one year. He’s been a good friend to us and he's gone out of his way helping Kaleb get adjusted to life here in Norway. He lives just a mile down the street and also goes to Agape Church. He has several part-time jobs, one of which was Kaleb’s religion teacher at school and the other as a leader in the afterschool program. Andreas has a heart for God and for kids and he will be missed. We can’t think about how sad we will be that he’s leaving, rather we think about how happy we are to know him and that he has been part of our lives while we’ve been here in Norway. He came over tonight to say good-bye so we were glad to have the opportunity to tell him what a blessing he has been to us. He was our angel just when we needed one.

We attended Filadelfia Kirke this morning and heard a sermon from one of the board members. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the same person preach twice there as they have a constantly revolving pulpit with many guest speakers from around the country and the world. They also use those gifted in their congregation or those who feel they have something on their hearts to share, so it’s always good preaching. I like their style. Afterwards I was introduced to some English speaking newcomers to Norway (and the church), who have a desire for a home fellowship group, but in English. After the service we had a little meeting about when and where we should meet and if we should just have fellowship or a Bible study – and they all wanted a Bible study, so that’s good. We’ll start in one week and meet at our house. It should be interesting as they are all refugees from different countries in Africa. I’m excited to get something going and see what God does.

This afternoon (and on into the evening), we had Kory’s mom’s cousins over for dinner. Kory’s mom was born on the Solevåg farm, which has been passed down from oldest son to oldest son for at least the last 500 years they’ve kept records, and chances are, for hundreds of years before that. The current occupant of the Solevåg farm is Kory’s mom’s first cousin, Olaf Solevåg. He has two brothers and two sisters. Olaf was here for dinner last week with his brother Terje and their wives. This week we invited his sisters (Kitty and Oddrun) and their husbands (and one of their sons) for dinner. They are all “gamle folk” (old people – which is relative now that Kory is so old), but it's fun for Kory to talk to them as they have many crystal clear memories of Kory when he was young, of their visits to America, of life on the farm. They aren’t making so many memories now, as much as reliving them, but it makes for good Sunday afternoon conversation around dinner and a cup of coffee. And this is the first time we have visited with them when I've understood anything they've said. They talk with such a thick dialect that I have been afraid to have them over before now as they talk to me like I understand them perfectly and I’m not sure if I should smile and nod my head in agreement or look concerned and shake my head in disbelief. I’ve been able to fake it most of the time when we are with them (we have dinner with all of them every time we come to Norway), but I’ve wanted to wait to have them over until I felt I had a good enough handle on the language to give it the ole college try. I surprised myself as I was able to track most of what they talked about. But they do all like to talk at the same time which makes understanding them nearly impossible, even if they were to speak English.

At one point one of them said something to me and I just said back in Norwegian, “I don’t understand a word you are saying – what is ‘doe-ka’?” as I had never heard that word before. When I hear a word I don’t understand, my brain checks out of the conversation and tries to figure it out. It wasn’t until the son said, “deres” that I understood. “Deres” is the proper Norwegian word for “you all,” (she was refering to Kory and I) but “doe-ka” is their local dialect word for the same thing. How the heck I am supposed to know THAT? Sule, the area around Solevåg, has some of the worst dialect words. Textbook Norwegian would say “I don’t know” as “Jeg vet ikke” (pronounced “y-eye vet ikka.”) The Ålesund dialect says the same thing as “Vet-chick-a,” which I think is bad enough, but those from the area around Solevåg (which is only a five minute drive from where we live but considered “the country”) they say “hit-cha pile-ing.” That is nothing even CLOSE to the original expression and many from within Norway can’t even understand “those country folk” from Sula. Communication is supposedly 90% non-verbal so I hope I am communicating to them that I love them even if I don’t understand them. I think they are super nice people, but honestly, I wouldn’t know if they weren’t.

The Half Way Point

I counted out the days we will be living in Norway, and today marks the half way point to our departure. It’s not half way to our arrival back home however, but we are now on the downward slide here. The time is going just too darn fast and we only have 24 more Saturdays left. It’s hard to know what to do with all of them as I hate to waste a single one.

Today almost felt wasted as we had hoped to go for a hike in the mountains because it was a gorgeous sunny and warm day, but the wind was so extreme it wouldn’t have been safe. Kory and Kaleb tried to go fishing this morning but the wind gusts nearly blew them into the water so they had to cut it short and come home with no fish, which made Kaleb happy. He wasn’t too excited about going fishing in the first place because he wanted to play his Nintendo. We had to bribe him and say he was “fishing for Nintendo” and he could earn extra play time for every fish he caught. That was the only way he would get up the gumption to go, to think somehow he could earn more than his allotted one hour a day on the silly game. Tobias came over this afternoon and they both just wanted to sit and play Pokemon on their Nintendo and I said they couldn’t turn them on until after dark (about 4pm now). They couldn’t come up with a single idea on what to do on except play electronics indoors. I finally sent them on an errand to go to the store for me and later they went down to the woods and goofed around, but I swear, that machine sucks all the imagination out of their heads. Kory even gave them suggestions on things he used to do when he was a kid, but none were satisfactory to Kaleb (Tobias was up for anything however as he’s so easy-going.)

Kory and I walked over to Odd and Turid’s then Turid went with us for a longer walk around a little lake to get some fresh air and enjoy the sunshine. The path was still frozen over so it wasn’t too safe and the wind was so strong I was worried one of the trees lining the lakeside would fall over on us, but we all made it around without incident (except Kory did get a little angina pain in his arm – which isn’t a good sign). It was unusually warm today and if there weren’t still piles of snow in some parking lots, the occasional ice patch here and there, and the chunks of ice slapping against the shore at the lake, it would be hard to believe it is winter here as it felt almost like a summer day. I’m sure it was close to 60 degrees. The snow in the mountains has nearly all melted as well. It was good to be outside this afternoon as I spent the entire morning cleaning house and dusting – something I do back home just once a year whether it needs it or not.

Tonight we went to a special meeting at Agape Church because they had a speaker in from Bergen. I think he was a Christian stand-up comic or something as everyone was cracking up the whole time he was talking. I understood the words he was saying but somehow missed the point, so it wasn’t funny to me. Kaleb was also a distraction as he didn’t want to be there and he was very disruptive. We had a last minute change of plans with him as he was going to stay home while we were gone, but he was acting so disrespectful to me when I was talking to him about something, I took away that “privilege.” Sometimes I just want to cry, he exasperates me so much, so Kaleb and I left early so he could get to bed. We were all up until midnight last night playing games so that was probably part of the problem with him today.

I found out tonight at church there is a certain protocol one must go through in order to deduct any charitable giving off their taxes here. To begin with, only 30% of what is given to churches or other charities is tax deductable (and there is a limit as to how much can be given), but NONE of it is a write-off unless the giver first registers with the recipient organization. Strange rule, but there are forms to fill out and filed within a certain time frame each year or else all money given is genuine charity with no tax benefits whatsoever. This is a big change from the way it was just a few years ago as no charitable giving was deductable at all. Many Christians in Norway don’t even tithe because part of their income taxes goes to support all the state run churches, so they feel they are already doing their part (even though only 1/10th of 1% of their taxes go for that purpose.) Makes me wonder how much money would be given to churches in America if none of it was a tax write off. The Bible says, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.” It's strange they are so intertwined now that when you give to one, it robs the other.

Finally Friday!

I’ve been glued to the news coverage of all the flooding in Washington State and I just hate the feeling of being so helpless. Friends of ours have been flooded out of their home, and if we were back there, at least they could come live with us. But here I sit, only able to pray. Fortunately, prayer is not the LEAST we can do, but the MOST we can do, so I have to trust God to take care of things because He has a lot more resources than I do. But here I go with that “survivor’s guilt” again because we have it so good here when so many don’t. Compounding the guilt is the fact we bought tickets today to go to Rome next month! All the airlines are having super deals right now and we can fly to Italy very cheap – so Kory said it’s my Valentine’s Day present and Kaleb said, “Isn’t that ROME-antic?” (I would be pretty excited if I could stop feeling so bad for our friends back home.)

Kaleb had a better day today than yesterday. Yesterday he finally succumbed to the urge to fight back with Morten. Morten threw a snowball at him (while they were in the dressing room), and Kaleb threw the remnants back at him, which enflamed Morten (who has otherwise been very kind these last several weeks). Morten pummeled Kaleb – he pushed him to the ground then repeatedly kicked him and hit him while he was down. The teacher came in when she heard Kaleb crying and had another “talking to” with Morten, but she also talked with Kaleb and suggested he just tell a teacher in the future when Morten does something, and not try to take matters into his own hands. Kaleb is fine, but I was a little disappointed in him for striking back (Kory said he doesn’t blame him one bit.) Today was uneventful on all accounts which was good because he’s had a tough adjustment this week going back to school and has asked me repeatedly if I can homeschool him again as he misses it so much (mostly, I think, he misses sleeping in and not having homework). As a compromise he’s decided now that he no longer wants to go to the afterschool program because he wants more time to do his homework right after school so he can play with Tobias every day. As it is, he doesn’t get home until after 4pm Monday to Wednesday and he uses every waking minute after that doing homework, eating dinner and getting ready for bed. There has been NO playtime during the week once he gets home (the afterschool program however, is ALL play time, and why they won’t let them do homework there is beyond me.) Kaleb’s plan is to come home on Mondays, when the weekly homework sheet is given out, and do the whole week’s worth of work that day so he’ll have the rest of the week free to play. I’m not sure it’s possible, but he’s insisting we give it a try. So I filled out the paperwork to stop the afterschool program next month and we’ll see how it goes.

In my class today we continued our discussion on health and the body which was interesting to hear about the old “wive’s tales” from other lands. The women from South America said if you cut an orange in half and smell it when you feel nauseous, it takes away that feeling. I told them something I learned in Norway years ago, about breast milk being a decongestant. The cousins here all told me on my first trip to Norway with Kaleb, that if he got a stuffy nose, just a drop of breast milk would clear it right up – and they were right (it works for adults too!). One of the women in the class, who is breastfeeding, offered her milk for those in class who are currently sick. We all got a good laugh out of that one. We are spending more time having class wide discussions now rather than just hearing all the rules of grammar the whole time. I’m still a little behind in memorizing all the grammar rules, which shows up drastically when I do any kind of writing in Norwegian. We just had a chapter review test this week to see how much we all forgot over the Christmas holiday and nearly all of us failed the test – including me! I only got 32 out of 52 possible points so I was pretty disgusted with myself. It’s my own fault because I spend zero time doing homework – I just do what I can on the bus in the morning and never really sit down at home and try to concentrate. But now, I must. I can’t be a slacker anymore.

Kory spent the day drawing. He took on a huge challenge as he’s doing the Borgund Stave Church we saw on our road trip at Christmas. He still insists he’s not an artist, and he doesn’t understand why I can’t do what he does because “all it is, is just drawing lines.” Sometimes he’s so irritating! Especially tonight when we had family game night and he kept winning all the games. We played Aggravation like it was the hit-man edition as everyone didn’t care about winning as much as they cared about wiping out the other guy. At one point I was so frustrated with Kaleb I said, “You are dirt.” And he said, “Yeah, but that just means you are older than dirt.” Ha ha.

The Last Day of Christmas

When I woke up yesterday morning it was 25 degrees outside. This morning it was 45. Ålesund lives up to its reputation for having “shifting weather” as yesterday we were in the midst of a beautiful winter landscape and today we have nothing but SLUDD (slush), which isn’t nearly as beautiful. I am so thankful I bought some “treads” for my shoes so I can slip them on to keep from slipping. The last thing I want is to fall and get injured, as we had quite the discussion in class today on the Norwegian health care system. It may be cheap, but it ain’t perfect. I’m hoping to avoid going to the doctor for anything while I’m here, so I’m taking extra precautions to be careful (I avoid going to the doctor at home too, so that’s not so unusual.) A few months after we moved here we all got a letter from the government telling us which doctor we have been assigned to. Kaleb got a separate letter saying they didn’t have his record of immunizations (probably because he has had NONE), and I got a separate letter stating they had no record of me having a “cancer check” lately and I was due for one. At least they are on top of things. If I were to call to make an appointment, I wouldn’t get in for over a month, as that is the typical backlog for medical appointments. If I needed a specialist, I’d first have to go see my assigned doctor to get a referral then wait another month for that appointment. If I needed surgery, then it’s not unusual to wait up to a year to get that. One of our neighbors had an injury on his job so he was put on disability leave until he could have surgery to fix his shoulder. He waited eight months for the surgery – all the while getting disability pay until he finally got the surgery, recovered, and was able to go back to work – nearly a year later. But on the upside, it’s cheap. There is a little co-pay for every visit to the doctor or emergency room, but once someone has met the maximum out of pocket expenses for the year, the rest of the year is free. That out-of-pocket limit is about $250 per person (or $750 per family), so basically, no one here loses their house if they are sick.

I can’t believe the number of my classmates that go to the emergency room even when they just have a cold! Most doctors’ offices are only open between 8:30 and 2:30, so it’s common to go to the ER for anything after two o’clock. They even had a big article in the paper recently about how long people had to wait at the ER over Christmas break because so many doctors took that time off. Unbelievably, the most anyone waited was two hours, and that was newsworthy because they thought it was so terrible. So it seems their ER system runs much more efficiently than their office visits. Go figure. But a trip to a doctor’s office has a co-pay of about $15, and a trip to the ER is around $30, so then everyone complains about how expensive THAT is. When I told my class that our insurance premiums in America went up to a thousand dollars a month – and that’s to not even GO to the doctor – then everyone shut up and said they would stop complaining about the Norwegian health care system. So much for that discussion.

Kory enjoyed his day home alone cleaning house, making soup, and drawing another picture. His latest drawing is impressive and I can’t wait until he finishes it. And tonight we were invited out to the island of Valderøya to have a yummy dinner with Kory’s 3rd cousin Kolbjørn and his incredibly classy wife Anne-Grete. They are a wonderful couple with a gorgeous home and we always have such interesting conversations with them (I was surprised over how long Kaleb was able to converse in Norwegian). They wanted us to visit before they took down all their Christmas decorations so we were treated to REAL candles burning on the tree, which made me a little nervous, but they sure looked snazzy. Anne-Grete showed me how to make the coolest Christmas tree ornaments – which were incredibly simple, yet elegant. Another great evening with them…. then on the way home we experienced a three minute miracle. The tunnel is being worked on so it closes at night and we had to take the ferry back. We all went inside to use the bathrooms and as the ferry was docking we went back to the van, only to discover Kory had locked his keys in the car! He ran back inside to see if the ferry workers could help us and Kaleb and I stood next to the van praying. I said, “Kaleb, we need a miracle or we’re going to have to break a window.” A guy was passing right behind us when I said that and he asked if we needed help. I said we did and he went over to his work truck, pulled out some handy tools which wedged the door open enough to stick a wire down and unlatch the lock – all within just a few minutes -- and just in time for us to drive off the ferry like nothing happened. God answered our prayers and sent us an angel at the exact moment we needed one. Hallelujah!

We're Shoutin' Hallelujah!

We had an interesting turn of events today. The attorney called Kory this morning to ask if he had gotten his e-mail yesterday. We hadn’t. The e-mail said that by today at 11:45am, the insurance company that owns The Sinking Houses wanted a letter of commitment from the bank to show that financing is guaranteed on the houses, or they will be sold to the next highest bidder because that bid expired today. I checked my spam folder and sure enough, there sat the e-mail somehow marked as junk mail, so it didn’t come to my inbox yesterday (this has never happened before with any e-mail from the attorney). As it was, Espen (one of Kory’s bosses) had already scheduled a meeting with the bank this morning so he was sitting at the bank when the attorney called Kory. Kory called Espen to tell him if they wanted to buy the houses, the attorney needed that letter immediately. There was a bit discussion down at the bank, trying to figure out what to do, since the appraisal hadn’t been completed and now there was this added pressure of losing the whole deal if a letter wasn’t produced. So, at 11:15 the bank finally said they just couldn’t do it, and the deal was lost. At noon today The Sinking Houses were officially sold to the next highest bidder, which we found out shortly thereafter, was the Ålesund Kommune. We were so surprised by that as we were sure it was some other builders that came by months ago to check them out. So all we can do is shout HALLELUJAH because we know that “God works all things together for the good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose” – and that includes us!

Kory has met with Jonathan and Espen several times these past weeks to help them work through the process of buying these places. It was looking like we were going to go into a partnership with them, but I was feeling less and less comfortable with the whole thing as the bank kept requiring more and more and things were starting to not pencil out as easily. For instance, because Jonathan and Espen have their own building company, they would NOT be allowed to do any repairs on these houses unless they get paid for the work. Their construction business would have to bill their rental houses for the work done (so that all the proper taxes can be paid.) The government here doesn’t allow any builder to do any work for free – ever – even on their own home. So when we started to find out little oddities like that, and then had to factor in the costs for all the repairs because they couldn’t do them for free, it started to make less and less sense to buy the houses. I just kept praying that somehow God would close the door if this whole thing was a BAD idea, and today, he unexpectedly smacked it shut in front of all of us, so we say HALLELUJAH! We love it that God knows the future and we can count on HIM to direct our steps and a closed door is just as good as an open one as far as I’m concerned. He closed the door once, he closed the door twice, and finally, Kory is accepting the fact that the door is really CLOSED. So now, we’ll see what the Kommune does.

We expect we will soon get a notice from the insurance company that says we have 30 days to move out, but everyone is pretty sure the Kommune will rent to us because Kaleb goes to school in this neighborhood. I’m not at all worried because I have “Fred” (that’s the Norwegian word for “peace” - how funny is that?) We think it will take time for the Kommune to get the other houses livable so we might not have neighbors for a month or two (it’s so quiet here – which is one of the things I love the most). The attorney says the Kommune bought them for low income housing – single moms with kids perhaps – so we shall see. The attorney did try to get the insurance company to give us even just two more days to wrap up the paperwork, but their hearts were hardened and they stuck to their guns. So when looking at it, we can see how we had every opportunity for it work out, but it didn’t, so we are more than thankful that God is our guide.

On another front, we got massive snow fall today and it’s just as gorgeous as it can be outside right now. It looks like someone spread marshmallow creme all over everything. The snow is pure powder and so fun to play in. Kory and I had a nice walk over to Odd and Turid’s tonight to tell them the news about the houses and Odd nearly shouted Hallelujah as he has been against us buying them from the start. Kaleb got his homework done in record time and was able to play with Tobias for a several hours today so he’s shouting Hallelujah as well. God is good – all the time.

Frustrations

I had the most frustrating visit at the bank today! Because my Norsk class now meets at a different school, I’m much farther from the center of town but I figured I could literally run down to the bank, make my deposit and run back all within 30 minutes. What was I thinking? All the banks here have a lobby set up almost like a living room with overstuffed chairs, coffee tables with magazines, couches, and lots of ambiance – THAT should be the first clue nothing is going to be quick. There is no line to wait in - when a customer walks in they must go over to an electronic ticket dispenser and select which type of service they want and take a seat. It’s not the simple grab-a-number-and-wait-for-it-to-be-called scenario, it’s more sophisticated than that -but sophisticated ONLY if one understands Norwegian fluently. For me, it’s a crap-shoot. “Push this button if you want blah blah blah,” or “push this button if you want bleh bleh bleh,” is how I read the screen because I have no idea what the other words mean. So, I pushed a button, hoping it was the right one because my odds were 50/50 it would be. As it turns out, it didn’t really matter. There was one teller working behind the counter and one person working behind a desk in a cubical. (In that way, it’s a similar set-up as American banks.) Apparently, if one needs the teller, they press one button, if more detailed attention is required – press the other button. They also have a “robotic teller” in the lobby. It’s a little kiosk with a computer screen and a place to dump coins, or a place to feed in cash bills, but a bank card is required to use that service so I was out of luck because I didn’t have a bank card for that bank (I just opened a savings account there a few weeks ago). So there I stood with my #19 ticket, waiting. Number 15 was being waited on by the teller and #505 was being helped by the woman at the desk. I was sure, with only three people in front of me, I could make it back to class within the thirty minute time frame. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I waited and waited, as each person took an incredibly LONG time at the teller (one customer even made the teller wait while he took a phone call). When the woman behind the desk was done, and no one else was waiting for her particular services, she took the next teller customer, which I hoped would decrease my wait time. Wrong again. The only reason I stuck around was because I had a lot of cash I wanted to deposit (I’ve been withdrawing some everyday from our American bank while the exchange rate is still good) AND Kaleb wanted to skip the afterschool program today and come home early to get all his homework done so he could play with Tobias afterwards. If I went to the bank after school I’d miss my bus home. So, there I stood, waiting. And after a painful 25 minutes, when I knew for sure I’d be next, in walks a guy that didn’t even take a number, and just goes into the cubical and sits down and talks to the woman behind the desk for a good five minutes. I wanted to scream, but that guy happened to be the attorney that Kory works with on The Sinking Houses – and he is a VERY nice guy, but I wasn’t thinking nice thoughts about him at that moment. After a good 30 minute wait, my number came up, and I explained (in Norwegian) to the women behind the desk that I had set up a new account and I didn’t have a bank card yet so I needed her help to deposit the cash. So I hand her my cash and she asks me if I have ANY kind of bank card and I tell her that I do have one from a different Norwegian bank where I have my “checking” account. Then she puts the frosting on the cake by telling me that I could have used THAT card in the “robotic teller." I learn something new every day here but this lesson was painful. So then she shows me how I just needed to use that card to engage the machine but then I can punch in any account number and the money gets deposited there, whether it’s the same bank or not. After a huge sigh, I stood there for another 15 minutes feeding the machine all the paper money because unlike the teller’s money counter which can take a massive stack of cash and count it in a split second, the robot can only handle a little at a time and doesn’t work nearly as efficiently. So all in all, it took just shy of an hour to make a deposit. I’m thinking whatever interest we earn by putting that money in the bank wasn’t worth the price of admission – plus I missed the last hour of my Norsk class (which perhaps could have taught me some those blah blah blah banking terms I didn’t understand!)

Kory too had a most frustrating day as it took him over 30 minutes just to get the van up a hill to get to his job site. Because of all the ice and snow, he kept going up, and sliding back down (sometimes doing an uncontrolled 180 degree spin in the process). In many “difficult” spots on roads around here, the Kommune puts a big box on the side of the road full of sand with a little shovel inside so people can help themselves to sanding the spot. Kory had to sand the entire hill in order to make it all the way up. And Kaleb came home frustrated that he didn’t get enough gym time today. So I should have served cheese for dinner as it would have gone nicely with all the whine we had in our house tonight.

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.