Week of Sept. 13

I am sitting here looking out my window watching the rain fall, but knowing in 10 minutes, the sun may just pop through again...I have learned this week why people say to always be prepared and have your rain jacket and boots with you! It has rained a lot this week, some days almost non-stop, but other days, like today, it comes in waves. Ten minutes ago the sun was shining brightly!

A quick (well, ok, I am never quick - too wordy for that!) run-down of the week...
Weather: mostly rainy, cool, windy, with some sun now and then

It was really a pretty "normal" week with just the usual stuff - school for the kids, my usual commitments, like walking, yoga, and kiosk, and work for Spencer with the bonus of not having to fly over to Oslo for the day Wednesday!

Kyla started the little Daisy Girl Scouts thing after school on Wednesday and she had a great time. It is a good chance for her to see friends in a more social way instead of just on the playground at recess. They had a snack, did a craft and some "get-to-know-you" kind of things. They will be getting workbooks and sashes and will work toward earning some patches as the year goes on.

This afternoon is dance for Kyla after school and soccer for Brendan with games in the morning. Kyla's friend, Abigail is coming home with us after dance to play and have dinner so she is excited about that. Daddy will do soccer practice duty with Brendan :)

Spencer and I finally broke down and went to the forusakutten (private doctor) and had our boosters for one of the vaccines we received before we left. We have one more to go in February and then we should be done with that.


As I type this, I am finishing off a Dr. Pepper I found at the MENY market (the one that also sells Welch's grape jelly.) They are hard to come by around here, so I splurged!

Car update: We are still driving a rental as the car is still sitting in the repair shop parking lot. One thing to know and understand here, they are not a service-oriented country. No one gets in any hurry unless they are trying to get through a door way ahead of you or push by you if they feel you are in their way. They did call and let us know what the possible issues are and we are desperately hoping it is the most minor one (i.e. least expensive.) Notice here, I did not say cheapest...because nothing is cheap here and anything service-related seems even more expensive. I did tell ya'll about the renseri (dry cleaners) right? We took 5 pair of Spencer's pants to be pressed...800 NOK (averages to about $20 per pair) later we decided we would do all the ironing at home! So you can imagine what our potential car repairs are going to run us...the minimal estimate is in the range of 10-12,000 NOK and depending on the damage once they get in there, as high as 20,000 NOK...They have ordered the parts and we are now waiting for those to come in and once parts are here, they will make an appointment to work on the car (which is already at their shop.) In the meantime, we will continue to pay for the rental...and hope the car is back in good shape before we head over to Bergen on Sept. 30.

Other things I have done this week that were "new" experiences...picked up a package from the posten (post office), ordered vacuum cleaner bags from the UK for the vacuum in the apartment (couldn't easily find them and decided not to run all over town) and discovered they were cheaper to order anyway :)

In other news, Ireland in October is a no-go - we had our travel agent (Barbara Koy) trying to set up some stuff for us and she absolutely could not find hotels, etc. Apparently our fall break is everyone else's too..., so Plan B is falling together - Munich, Germany and Salzburg, Austria!!! Barbara has found us some amazing tours and is getting all the hotels, tours, bus passes, etc. all set up for us! One thing we have learned from talking to people around here and with Barbara is that it is very difficult to find hotel rooms for 4 people. Most places have a 3-person maximum per room so it is either search out one of the few quads or reserve 2 rooms. We are super-excited about the trip! One of the tours is a "Sound of Music" tour where you get to see all the places where the movie was filmed. We will also do a tour of 2 castles in Germany - so, so excited! Spencer is excited about Oktoberfest and German beer as you can well imagine :)

One last little thing to add...please keep some of our friends in your thoughts and prayers. Their little girl (age 3) was just diagnosed with a cancerous tumor and is undergoing surgery today to remove the tumor and get a permanent catheter for her series of chemotherapies that will start soon.